I Believe in Walking Every Day
I believe in walking. Every day. I take about 45 minutes every day to walk with Smitty, our family dog, up to a place called the Peace Chapel. The route takes me across the Juniata College campus and through neighborhoods to an expanse of protected land that is wildish.
I walk up a dirt road through the woods to a clearing at the top of a little hill. The view is almost 360 degrees, and it’s glorious up there every season of the year. There’s a circle of stones in the clearing. Usually I walk around the stones once or twice, sending my thoughts and prayers toward those who need them. Sometimes I sit for a few moments. And then I head back down the hill. Just about every day.
If you think it sounds boring to follow the same route each day, I completely understand. But the great beauty, and benefit, of my daily walk is it’s never the same. I’ve observed a great variety of birds, animals, and plant life. The weather, of course, is always different. I watch the landscape turn from brown to green to white. Sometimes I stop and chat with people I meet along the way; a couple of weeks ago I got a great tip on an apartment for a grad school friend.
One evening on my walk, I arrived at the circle of stones and almost stumbled over five or six bottles of very fine beer – unopened and pristine! As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up. So I hid my found treasure and brought them home the next day in a backpack.
On another walk, I found a little shrine with a lit candle and a picture of a dark-haired girl. No one else was around. How could I not be fascinated, and sad, at coming upon that scene?
So I walk every day along a route I try to see afresh each time. It’s a practice that I embrace and need and believe in. Going about daily life I keep a pretty brisk pace. But a walk compels me to slow down – there is no outside force to accelerate me.
The movement and motion of my walk has a number of benefits, not just physical. My heart and my middle-aged joints are strengthened by load-bearing exercise, but so is my head. I puzzle out situations at work, mentally compose e-mails, practice difficult conversations, or just really focus on something that has been on my mind. When I get home from my walk, I feel better – a little bit stronger, more energized. I know I’ll either sleep better or think more clearly depending on when I’ve walked.
I need the routine of a daily walk to order my days. I believe very firmly that I engage in, and appreciate, my life and work more because I walk. Every day.
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