Pictured in my latest blog post are my friends and I on Atalaya Mountain above Santa Fe. It was my first hike of the summer, and I decided to, once again, take my favorite trail. I guess it’s my favorite because of all the memories. I’ve traveled the 5 mile, out-and-back path dozens of times […]
“There’s no better place to find yourself than sitting by a waterfall and listening to its music,” wrote nature photographer Roland Kemler. I couldn’t agree more. In my recent update to 1001 Fun Things To Do in Retirement, I added 64 fun walks and day hikes. I didn’t do it on purpose, but 13 of […]
“If there’s heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached to it” wrote singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. Beach goers like Buffet are profusive in their praise. “There’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away,” wrote poet Sarah Kay. A […]
“The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself,” wrote John Wesley Powell, the Army Major who led the first American exploration of the canyon in 1869. If you’ve stood at its rim, you know what he meant. My word is “mesmerized,” a term attributed to […]
Walk at Night “I have been one acquainted with the night,” wrote Robert Frost. I want to say, “Me too, Mr. Frost, but not acquainted as much as I would like.” I once saw the night sky on a regular basis—when I was a Boy Scout on campouts, when I lived on a ranch in […]
Note to reader: As you’ve probably guessed, I’m making these blog posts into a book. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. For now, what follows is my draft of the last chapter. Thoughts? But You Haven’t Said Anything about Retirement. No, I haven’t. Well, actually I did. Because if walking is a metaphor […]
Why miss an extra hour of sleep to get up and walk, even if it’s cold and windy? I think if you ask the walkers who have this level of devotion, they will all say the same thing: “I love it!” Now the “it” may differ among respondents. Some might enjoy the challenge. Others the […]
“If anyone asks where you are going,” wrote Graham, “you may tell him in confidence, whisper the dreadful fact in his ear—‘Honestly, I do not know.’” Graham was talking about his zigzag walks. “This is distinctly not a walk on which to embark with one’s wife,” he added. Why? Why no wife? Maybe it’s because […]
“Let chance and the town take charge of you,” Graham writes. “For the world we travel in is more wonderful than human plans or idle hearts desire.” Graham is describing a strategy for exploring the streets of New York City, which he calls “the zigzag walk.” He starts down an avenue, then takes the first […]
Graham says the “born wanderer is always expecting to come on something very wonderful—beyond the horizon’s rim.” He further explains that this “makes the desire to wander or explore almost incurable.” The Germans have a name for it. Sehnsucht is their word for “longing.” Commenting on sehnsucht, C.S. Lewis says it is the “inconsolable crux […]