A few weeks ago, Cam brought a question to the opening circle.
He'd been on a podcast the night before, the host asked it, and he couldn't stop turning it over.
“If all the distractions disappeared tomorrow — the feeds, the shows, the noise — what would happen to us?”
So he brought it to 40 strangers at 8 AM on Saturday, and something funny happened.
Nobody answered the question.
But the walk answered it instead.
A man who'd spent the morning arguing with himself about whether to get out of bed ended the walk deep in a conversation about intuition. A woman who'd been calling her empty social calendar a problem started calling it “space.” A first-timer said, plainly and without drama: "I don't want my college friends to be the last friends I ever make."
None of them turned off the internet.
They just walked out the door.
And every single thing they'd been carrying… the half-formed questions, the transitions they hadn't named yet, the sentences they'd been almost ready to say out loud… followed them onto the trail.
This is what we keep learning, walk after walk, city after city:
The noise doesn't have to stop for you to hear yourself again.
You just need somewhere built for that to happen. Sometimes, it turns out, that looks like five miles and a few strangers on Saturday. 🧡
From our walking villages in 16+ cities around the world:
Walk #200 in Austin, Texas. Four years. Two hundred walks. Same trail, same energy, somehow still getting better. 🎉
Detroit showed up with their handmade sign and a perfect sunny day. Mostly regulars. The dedication never wavers. 🧡
Walk #9 in Aveiro, Portugal. Something special is building here. 🇵🇹
Sacramento Walk #11. Good questions, great people, and the Tower Bridge doing its thing in the background. Host Megan is out here thriving right before her honeymoon. 🌞
(Don’t see your city? We post the photos in each Meetup group after the walk. Otherwise this email would be longer than a CVS receipt.)
🏆 At a recent walk in London, someone asked: “What’s one question that, if you asked yourself every day, would improve your life?” After a pause, Cristina answered, “What story are you telling yourself?” Minutes later, another walker borrowed the question to rethink their fear of being more social.
🏆 At our Sacramento walk, a regular known for biking to every walk (even in the rain), was asked if he’d ever consider guest hosting. As a self-proclaimed introvert, he initially hesitated, then came back at the end of the walk and said: “If you still need someone, I’ll do it.”
🏆 At a recent Austin walk, one woman reflected on leaving a relationship where, in her words, “I made myself smaller and smaller.” Now rebuilding her confidence, she comes to events telling herself she only has to stay five minutes. If she doesn’t like it, she can leave. Somehow, five minutes keeps turning into five miles. 🧡
In the first 30 minutes of a walk, you learn more about forty strangers than you would over forty dinners.
Names. What they're grateful for. The thing that's been rattling around all week with nowhere to land.
That's the whole trick: the walk gives the signal somewhere to go.
You step out of the noise for two and a half hours, and what you couldn't hear finally surfaces.
As one London regular put it: “The walk is where I hear myself most clearly.”
This week on The Board Walks, people brought these topics:
“What makes something art?”
“What has been the biggest loss in your life and what did you learn from it?”
“What about yourself are you most proud of and why?”
“To what extent do you make a decision to stay or leave in a relationship?”
“What brings you joy, and what does happiness actually mean to you?”
Screenshot these. Steal with pride. Bring one to your next dinner party to shift the conversation from “meh” to marvelous.
Quick hits:
🎉 We were interviewed by Mighty Networks this week for a community case study. It went over time by 30 minutes. Electric. We’re definitely in our visibility era, so if you know any podcasters or journalists looking for a fascinating story, reply to this email and let us know.
🙌 Our site got revamped. Elle is the only person who’s touched The Board Walks website since 2022, but she didn’t have time or space to flesh it out and reflect our full ecosystem and mission. This week, it finally happened. Right in time for what feels like a massive upswing in growth.
🔓 Our next Salon is June 18th. We’re excited to host a curated room for the questions, collisions, and conversations people keep wishing they could find more often — this month, all about Love & Relationships. Join us →
🫶 People are staying longer. Lately, more attendees are lingering after the walk for coffee, deeper conversations, and “I’m really glad I came” moments.
A long walk, a few good questions, and maybe… just maybe… someone says exactly what you needed to hear.
Here’s to Saturdays with signal. Come find yours.
Maybe this is the week strangers turn into your people. 🧡
Have a whimsical week,
Head Gardeners of The Board Walks
P.s. Know someone who’d love this? Forward this to them. You never know what might happen next. ✨
