11 Jun Father and son

‘Wraff, wraff’ I hear and although I cannot see him yet, I suspect I know who it is. I climb further up the steep path, over rocks and stone trails. When I turn around I have a view over the wide valley, all the way to the peaks of the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean Sea. Below me, a river winds its way through the rock formations.

Patou
I climb further and now I see him standing. On the edge of the rock, where a high plateau begins, there stands a white Patou, the sheepdog that is as big as a calf. In this region, he is frequently used to protect the sheep herd from the wolf. The Patou looks like a friendly white giant, but it’s better to stay out of his way.

‘Wroef’ I hear again with his deep voice. I climb further and ensure that I keep a considerable distance from him. Now I see what is going on: the Patou is driving a father and son away from the herd. The Patou has also noticed me by now. I do not look at him and respectfully make a wide arc through the heath bushes.

Autonomous
A little later, I meet the two randoneurs. The father has a large backpack with everything they need together to be autonomous for four days. The son, about 7 years old, studies me closely before he cautiously answers my questions. We start chatting. ‘Last night we slept on the plateau. At that altitude, the temperature drops quite a bit at night,’ says Jeremy, whose name I now know. ‘I saved on my own sleeping bag when packing,’ he says with a smile, ‘otherwise the backpack would have been too heavy, but I was cold last night.’

Jeremy says that they climbed 800 meters that day. His son is doing it all as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. ‘At this age, they want to do that,’ Jeremy says, ‘he learned it young and will carry it with him his entire life.’ He asks me extensively about what I am doing here in the Caroux, and I tell him about the zen temple and our practice. He listens intently and talks about a retreat with a fasting program in the Ardennes that he is going to participate in.

Then the paths separate.

Campsite
In the evening at the temple, I hear talk of new people who have set up their campsite a little further on the grounds, a father and a son. The dad would like to participate in the meditation tomorrow. I take a blanket from the storage room and go look for them. When I cross the stream, I see them. The tent is already up. They’ve just had their dinner. We both laugh that they ended up here after our meeting. ‘Yes,’ says Jeremy, ‘my son had enough for today.’ He happily accepts the extra blanket. Now the son gets involved and demonstrates the water filter for me. The next day, Jeremy participates in half of the meditation. ‘Rain is coming,’ he tells me, ‘so we’re sure to be down before the rain falls.’

When father and son were already on the road again for some time, I receive a note from a fellow practitioner. It says ‘Thanks, also for the blanket’, plus a phone number. We exchange photos via the app.

I enjoy getting to know new people in this way. There doesn’t need to be a deep friendship that develops; the acquaintance itself is already enjoyable enough.

Connection is the third pillar
Kasley Killam provides in her book ‘The Art and Science of Connection’ (2025) the scientific basis for the importance of interaction and connection. It is the third pillar of health, she states. In addition to physical and mental health, which receive a lot of attention, we should equally prioritize social health. Research shows that maintaining contacts and friendships and being part of groups and associations has a significant positive influence on both health and well-being.

*This post has been automatically translated from Dutch