I took
a walk today. Is that crazy or what?
I mean,
seriously, is that crazy?
Before
we consider that question with sincerity, I’ll say right off that I love taking
walks. I take them all the time – every
day if I have the chance. Sometimes my
walks are long and at least a little rugged, sometimes way up in the mountains
or on the shore of a lake. But usually
my walks are not very far – maybe a mile or so – and cover familiar territory
in my neighborhood. In fact, I have, in
essence, a very well-worn path between my house and the nearest store where I
do all my routine grocery shopping and whatnot.
I don’t have all the leisure time required to take walks every day, but
I find if I combine my walks with errands, that allows me to take more of them,
and, at the very least, not feel as if I’m “wasting” my time doing so.
It
started over twenty years ago, when I had a suspended driver’s license (another
story for another time.) I wound up
moving to a different state during the period of my license suspension, and was
unable to get any limited driving privileges at all. So long before it was at all trendy, I’d every
few days grab my heavy-duty canvass shopping bags and walk a mile or so to the
grocery store, buy as much as I could comfortably carry, and then hoof it home
again. And I grew to enjoy those
outings; enjoy them so much that I continued taking them after I got my driving
privileges back. Since then, I’ve lived
in a dozen or so different homes in different parts of the country, some in big
cities, some in sprawling suburbs, some in remote rural areas, but wherever
I’ve lived, I’ve tried to establish a routine in which I can take frequent
walks and do my errands at the same time.
At a couple of the remote places I’ve lived this was pretty impractical;
but most of the time it’s been great.
I’ve actually come to dislike driving my car – at least on short trips
around town – so much that I do as much of my commuting and errands as possible
without using my car. And, I say with
all sincerity, I love it. I don’t do it
because I have to or out of guilt, I do it because it’s enjoyable and good for
my body and spirit.
