Browsed by
Category: walking

Walking Early

Walking Early

Comments 0 Comment

I often have a little debate with myself in the morning: should I walk first or should I write? I’ll do both eventually, of course. They are the warp and woof of my day. Twenty-four hours without them is barely a day at all. 

But there remains the order. To walk early is to give the body precedence when the mind is sharpest. To write early is to miss the coolest and most pleasant hours of the day. 

Today, walking raised its hand, waved it in front of my face. Choose me, choose me, it said. 

And so … I did.

Unplugged

Unplugged

Comments 0 Comment

While I would like to say I always walk bare-eared, open to the sounds of wind in the pines and birds on the bough, in truth I am usually plugged in, listening to music or a recorded book. 

Yesterday, I started out with one of these in mind, but as I began to amble along a forest path, I realized that I couldn’t pollute my ears. The only sounds that should enter them on such a pristine spring morning should be the sounds the morning itself produced.

It was a calm, quiet, meditative experience. I’m doing it again today. 

A Trip to D.C.

A Trip to D.C.

Comments 0 Comment

A few days ago I met a friend for lunch in D.C. I parked in the Union Station garage and made my way past the old neighborhood: New Jersey and 1st Avenue, along E Street to the National Building Museum, where I stole a glance at those stunning columns. 

From there to Chinatown, bustling again, though with way too many boarded-up stores. The restaurant we chose was still in business, though, and lively, to boot.

After that, a stroll down the Mall and over to the Botanic Garden and a cool outdoor exhibit/structure made of brush, a human-sized nest that kids were running in and out of. 

I love the views of the Capitol you get from the Garden. It humanizes and softens the building, makes it seem more a part of the landscape. Which, of course, it certainly is.

Warmer Amble

Warmer Amble

Comments 0 Comment

It’s a sunny day that begs to be explored, and I have my usual dilemma: to move the muscles or exercise the mind. The mind usually comes first these days, because I start inside and it’s easier to stay here for a few hours. 

And as bright as the light is, streaming into this morning room, the purring furnace tells me it’s still cold out there. I’m happy to wait until it’s purring a little less before I venture out.

Yesterday’s stroll was a hurried one: I threw on a down vest and dashed out the door. It wasn’t until I rounded the corner that I realized I needed a hat and gloves.

The frigid fast-walk refreshes and energizes … but I’m hoping for a warmer amble today. 

Virginia Bluebells

Virginia Bluebells

Comments 0 Comment

About 30 minutes north of here a road dead ends and a trail begins. The trail slopes gently down through a lofty forest to the Potomac. 

We hiked it last week, tipped off by a fellow walker that there were fields of Virginia bluebells to see. 

And, reader, she was right …

Trail Talk

Trail Talk

Comments 0 Comment

Walkers usually keep to themselves. We’re an introverted bunch. But yesterday was different. 

“Can you believe this day?” a woman said to me as she came closer, gesturing to the blue sky, her arms raised as if I were a long-lost friend. 

I thought for a moment we might know each other, so enthusiastic was her greeting. But no, she was just a fellow traveler, her tongue loosened by the endorphins or the trail or the fact that we were both alive and well on a glorious spring morning. 

April for Real

April for Real

Comments 0 Comment

The new month has crept up on me. Though it is April in reality, it is March in my mind. What to do about this? Get out and walk through it, I suppose. 

I’ll be looking for the usual signs: violets nodding in the early grass, bluebells along the path. The yellow blossoms of forsythia greening along the stem. And if we’re lucky, the dogwood and azaleas will overlap enough to make the tableau you see above.

Winds will blow, rain will fall, maybe even snow. But the sun will mean business. That’s another way to know that April is really here.

The Walking Cure

The Walking Cure

Comments 0 Comment

Solvitur ambulando — “it is solved by walking” — is the unofficial motto of this blog. Throughout the years, the walks I’ve taken have not just stretched my legs and bolstered my mood; they have also proved, over and over again, that simply getting up and moving is the solution to many of life’s problems.  

For the most part, then, despite all the physical advantages it brings, I still see walking’s chief benefit to be a mental one.

What I remembered this weekend, when I strolled outside for the first time in seven days—after being down with a cold and other annoyances—is how walking helps a body recuperate. The combination of fresh air and footfall working their magic.

The walks were not the fastest I’ve ever taken, nor did they cover the most ground. But they took me out of the house and into the wide world, and I was grateful for them.

New Trail in Town

New Trail in Town

Comments 0 Comment

My walking discoveries continue. Late last week I took off again through the nature center, its trails soft with beaten dirt and crushed leaves. I was looking for another way to reach the bridge I hadn’t known was there … and found it!

But instead of turning right again I turned left, and found myself once again on a path I’d never trod. This is a trail I’ve walked past hundreds of times but somehow never taken. 

I marveled at the tall trees, at the winsome gait of the baseball-capped woman I saw along the way, at the family of five who passed me going the other direction. The tallest of the three children had just found a huge stick, more like a small tree trunk, and he seemed determined to bash everything in sight with it. 

When I had walked a while along this new route, I began to understand where I was, knew I could take a tunnel passage underneath the road. It’s amazing what you can see when you take the “new” trail in town.

Connections

Connections

Comments 0 Comment

In my continuing quest to  explore the untrod paths of my immediate environs I found myself  the other day not exactly lost “in a dark wood,” but flummoxed on a bright, leafless hillside. 

In short, I was stymied by a creek that seemed much deeper and fast-flowing than I remembered it being the last time I was there. Since the last time I was there was several years ago, this was understandable. But it didn’t help me across. 

For that I had to circle back to the shoulder-less two-lane road I’d crossed to get there. I trotted quickly along the side of the road facing the traffic, stepped over the guard rail, and made it to the other side of the creek before the next car sped by. 

I enjoyed the rest of the stroll alongside the creek, sauntering, thinking, except, I’ll admit, for a vague unease about getting back. I needn’t have bothered because I discovered on the way home a more direct passage to the trail by staying in my neighborhood’s common land until it reaches the stream valley park. There was even a little homemade bridge to guide me. 

I’m not sure, but I think there’s a lesson in here somewhere …