EcoBliss: Walkin', A Terrible Way to Travel

A picture taken on a cemetery walk.

Listening to right now: Lila Downs, Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps

Today's Happiness Formula: Later today, we get to go to our neighbors' to drink wine, eat cheese, and embarrass their daughter as she leaves for her prom. Doesn't get better than that!

Following My Bliss By: Continue working on nonfiction. Journal. Read that great book I mentioned yesterday. Make lists (oh, how I adore making lists!).

I took a long walk to the cemetery during some exceptional spring weather to take some photos, in particular to photograph the trees which were bursting in pink-osity. When I got there, I realized all too late that I had managed to drink too much water before I left!

You can imagine, I took photos fast that day. And during the whole walk home, I was cursing myself for not having ridden my bike. A much faster mode of transportation when there are not public bathrooms to be found.

But slow was my point that day. And even a bike can be too fast once you get used to really witnessing this life you are living rather than speeding by it in a car.

Above all, do not lost your desire to walk.
Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being
and walk away from every illness; I have walked
myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no
thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it."

--Soren Kierkegaard

My favorite walking story:

We were on the bus because we had to go the mall area for some god forsaken reason. (And a mall area truly fits the definition of "god forsaken," don't you agree?)

It was summer but where the mall is located is a bit too dangerous for my biking tastes. And there aren't sidewalks for walking.

But some people had braved all of this and were walking toward where our bus was waiting for the light to change.

A large woman who looked rooted right into her seat, leaned into the person next to her and said:

"Walkin'." She shook her head and paused dramatically. "Now that's a terrible way to travel."

I almost peed myself (and I hadn't had an excess of water that day).

But that story is sad, too. She may have been a stereotypical bus rider in these parts (where bus riders tend toward the lower socio-economic levels), but I think most people -- regardless of socio-economic status -- would have nodded in agreement with her.

Walking. It's slow. If it's hot, you might get sweaty! Gasp! If it's raining, you might get wet. If it's snowing, you might get cold.

Yes, that's right, when you walk...you might actually experience the weather!

I can thank walking, actually, for my new love of winter. Winter was a season I detested. Besides the snow sitting on Christmas lights, I had no use for winter. But then I started walking in those storms and after those storms. When most people stay inside. When there are barely any cars on the road.

The peace of it. Walking taught me there are different kinds of silence and the one after a snow storm is heavy and complete.

Do not lost your desire to walk...

How many problems have I solved walking? How many story ideas have I gotten? I have plotted entire novels on walks. When I start my day with an early morning walk, all goes well. When I take the time to remember to go for a walk in the middle of the day, it slows me down just enough to remember my priorities for the rest of the day.

Perhaps the truth depends
on a walk around the lake.

--Wallace Stevens

We are built for walking, we humans. We are built for moving around, feeling life through our physical shells.

So what is happening to us as we sit inside metal shells for so much of the day?

Take a walk today and see what comes of it. Go by yourself. Walking with someone is a wonderful way to connect to another but this walking is about connecting to yourself.

I stroll along serenely,
with my eyes, my shoes,
my rage, forgetting everything.

--Pablo Neruda