Walking

I walk all the time, but even in this wild place I love so much, most of the walking that I do is along familiar paths that I follow nearly every day. It's true that I walk further afield, too, sometimes much further, where everything is new—new in a different way than these madrone blossoms and douglas irises and lupines are new. And yet I don't walk like this nearly enough—just heading out the door in favor of what comes up next.

Instead, how often we make some list of tasks fixed and determinant—just like that other list we carry with us, the one with all the expectations we imagine that others hold for us.

But when we walk just for the helluvait, we can become as fluid as the world is—as fluid in the world as we are meant to be. 

Below are two quick reading suggestions for helping you walk out the door...

The first, Edward Abbey's "Walking," is full of memorable one-line slogans to slap on your bumper, and typical of Abbey, is sarcastic as hell. 

Abbey on walking:"Whenever possible I avoid the practice myself. If God had meant us to walk, he would have kept us down on all fours, with well-padded paws...He surely would not have made mountains...read more 

The second, by Kurt Vonnegut, is no less funny...or poignant. You'll be reminded that it's as easy (or as hard) to get off your butt and ramble in a city as it is in the wild.

Vonnegut: "I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I'd never have to leave it...read more

The other day I met a guy from Tuscany wearing this t-shirt: "The internet is down...so I've come outside a while." (He's the guy on the far left—with his back to you.) We were all working side by side clearing brush along the Rocky Creek road—the one way a vehicle can get in and out of here. And we did some good work together, too. But tomorrow morning I'm heading out a different way.