Friday, July 10, 2015

Regarding the Simple Act of Walking

I would like to draw attention to the role that walking in solitude has played in my life.  Walking is to me is much like dance- it affects me in a similar way.  Once my body rediscovers the rhythms inherent in the act of walking, it manages to free my brain of its seemingly endless internal chatter.  The world around me seems to open up and reveal its inherent secrets.  I become awakened to those remarkable details that ordinarily fail to draw my attention – the shape, color and texture of leaves, the remarkable consistency of and endless variability of bark on a living tree, the most delicate of blossoms, the animated face of a child and loving glance of his mother.  Even the apparently inanimate seems to grow vivid and vital.  In this state of existence, the mundane ceases to ordinary.
When I walk in this way, the assaulting and invasive noise so embedded within the fabric of modern life seems to be supplanted by a marvelous quiet that has its origin within the deepest part of myself.  I enjoy moving about the world using the machinery inherent in my own body.  For me, walking touches upon the essential joyfulness of being. 

Ever since I was a child, I have had an affinity for walking.  It is so much a part of my personal history that I cannot imagine myself being unable to do so; although, I am sure that time will necessarily come.  I hope I will possess the wherewithal to accept that reality if and when it should dawn upon my life.  

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