The Rural Voice, 2006-07, Page 10(mAiwt)
Jeffrey
Carter is a
freelance
journalist
based in
Dresden,
Ontario.
"Walking is the great adventure,
the first meditation, a practice of
heartiness and soul primary to
humankind. Walking is the exact
balance between spirit and humility."
– Gary Snyder,
The Practice of the Wild
Why walk?
One might start with the obvious.
It's good for your health. Keeps
your back limber. Keeps your legs
and butt toned. Helps you control
your weight. You'll feel better
physically for it and all that oxygen
being pumped to your brain will
allow you to think clearly.
Jeffrey Carter
Five reasons to walk
All these things together, God
willing, will keep you healthy and
active well into old age.
There's also the environment to
consider — the more we rely on
motorized transportation, the more
difficult it becomes to breathe.
There are extreme examples of the
"drive-aholic" type. On a CBC Radio
program last month, an interview
with a Montreal single parent was
featured. She drives pretty well
everywhere. She even packs her kids
into the car every school day for the
one -block trip down the street – even
though the walk would be just as
quick.
In my small town, drivers abound,
but you'll also see a few regular
walkers and begin to recognize
you're not alone. The majority are
women and most walkers appear to
be doing it primarily for the exercise,
though that's just a guess.
Exercise and concern for the
environment are two of my
motivations but there are others.
I like to take extended walks,
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6 THE RURAL VOICE
usually no further than five or six
miles at a time and not much longer
than 90 minutes or so. My son and I
occasionally go longer, a half day's
walk, with 10 or more miles covered.
Only by walking can we become
truly intimate with your surround-
ings.
You notice things walking that are
unseen, unheard and unfelt from the
seat of an automobile. As author
J.R.R. Tolkien gained an appreciation
of the English countryside with long
country strolls, we can only
understand our place on the planet by
walking it.
There is a diverse abundance of
natural features and wild creatures
sharing our human space. The subtle
play of sun, cloud and wind becomes
apparent. You recognize, during a
late night country stroll, that starlight
exists.
And like Gary Snyder's quotation
suggests, walking is an excellent way
to meditate. Thoughts flow smoothly,
one to the next, and any tension you
may have been feeling evaporates.
It's not that inspiration will be
generated simply through the act of
walking, but the calming effect
allows you to discard the clutter and
tocus on what's important.
Finally, walking allows you to gain
an appreciation for distance and
time.
Anyone who wishes to understand
the length of a mile must walk a mile,
and time is connected to walking in a
couple different ways. The time it
takes to cover a given distance in the
here and now provides us with a
knowledge of our physical nature. It
also provides an appreciation of times
long past when people travelled by
foot out of necessity, rather than
choice.
The realization that seasons shift,
the world turns, and time passes
become rea1.0
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