“Walk to get lost,” wrote Annabel Streets. “I like getting lost. I like the way it jolts me awake as if a double espresso has been poured directly into my head and given a good stir.” Evidently, there are benefits to being lost. Says Streets, “When we’re lost, we’re exposed to new landscapes and landmarks—forcing […]
“Doing nothing is hard to do,” wrote Rebecca Solnit in Wanderlust. “It’s best done by disguising it as doing something, and the something closest to doing nothing is walking.” Solnit’s point is that our modern culture is consumed with productivity. For your activity to be valuable, it must produce—more money, more friends, more health—and so […]
“I can only meditate when I walk,” wrote Jean-Jaques Rousseau. “”When I stop, I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.” In his Confessions (completed in 1770), the famous French philosopher went on to explain in more detail. “There is something about walking which stimulates and enlivens my thoughts. When I stay […]
“I am a confirmed saunterer,” wrote Christopher Morley. “I love to set down haphazard among unknown byways; to saunter with open eyes, watching the moods and humors of men, the shapes of their dwellings, the criss-crosses of their streets.” Morley’s essay (found in Travels in Philadelphia, 1937) is the citified version of Thoreau’s Walden Pond. […]
It’s called the “Lassie effect.” Dog owners “typically walk more frequently—and for longer—than those without dogs” (Annabel Streets, 52 Ways to Walk). Streets goes on to say “studies suggest that the stronger the bond between dog and owner, the more they walk together.” I did some research. Sixty-five million households in the U.S. have at […]
Yesterday’s blog spoke of a heavy heart as the “heaviest thing in the world.” Today, I want to address that. What can walking do for the weights we carry on the inside—things like loneliness, fear, loss or rejection? Robert Moor comments on the struggle in his 2016 book, On Trails. He’s writing about his fellow […]
“The human body is a steed that goes freest and longest under a light rider, and the lightest of all riders is a cheerful heart,” wrote John Burroughs. On the other hand, the American naturalist said “the heaviest thing in the world is a heavy heart.” So how do we bring cheerfulness into our walks? […]
Could walking with one’s adversaries lead to a more peaceful world? Evidently Ronald Reagan thought so. In his 1985 first summit with Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, and after several hours of somewhat stiff, unproductive talking, our 40th president realized the meeting was going nowhere and suggested to his counterpart that the two of them take […]
“The true charm of pedestrianism does not lie in the walking, or in the scenery, but in the talking,” said Mark Twain. “It is no matter whether one talks wisdom or nonsense, the case is the same; the bulk of the enjoyment lies in the wagging of the gladsome jaw and the flapping of the […]
“I like tramping alone, but a companion is well worth finding. He will add to the experience; perhaps double it.” The words came from Stephen Graham whom Morris Marples (Shank’s Pony: a study of walking) called “the greatest prophet of 20th century walking.” Still Graham had his critics. Famous walkers like Hazlitt, Rousseau and Thoreau […]