Ever since the girls got too big to want me to walk to school with them, I’ve found myself spending more and more time indoors, when what I really need, is to get out into the fresh air and go for a walk.
Now I know it really isn’t difficult to put your shoes on and head off into the country, especially as we live on the edge of the Grand Union Canal, but I’ve struggled with doing it regularly. Until now, because as of last week, we have a dog!
I have now been out for at least four miles a day, every day for a week and I love it.
I’m not sure that I’m much fitter yet, and if he decides to jerk the lead as hard as he did this morning (well he had just spotted his new best friend across the field), I might need a neck brace – talk about whiplash, if I’d been in the car, I could probably have made a mint.
But the very act of getting into the fresh air is doing wonders.
Knowing that he needs a good walk, I’m scheduling my time to fit everything in – that helps me feel purposeful.
Every day, I’m meeting new people, and it’s true that more people speak to you when you have a dog with you.
And perhaps, for me, best of all, is that I can now tune back in to the rhythms of nature. I’ve understood for ages, that I respond closely to the changing seasons, but walking outdoors every day, even for such a short time, is already reminding me, how much happens in nature while we get on with out daily lives.
This morning’s highlights were the moorhen with her chicks, and the yellow irises, beginning to bloom at the edge of the canal.
ALmost everything I’ve read over recent years about meditation, mentions walking meditation. Well, this might not be a true walking meditation, but it is certainly spiritually uplifting and I’m delighted to embrace the effect.
Mostly Motley 