For the whole day
Teresa and I enjoyed a lovely walk from Bourton-on-Water to Lower Slaughter, June 2017.
“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” — Henry David Thoreau
OK, I can just hear some of you thinking “Great quote – but how would YOU know about early-morning anything?” Good point. However, I’m quoting Thoreau, who supposedly knew it quite well. Still, I think there have been a few times when I’ve found myself outside walking in the very early daylight hours, and, against all odds, I found it delightful. So I can wholeheartedly agree with Thoreau despite the very limited experience I’ve had with venturing outdoors at daybreak.
But afternoon and evening walks are delightful, too. They might not have the advantage of jump-starting the day the way a morning walk can do, but they are great for untangling the stresses that tie one’s mind into knots during the busier hours. Birdsong in the morning, crickets chirping in the evening, afternoon sunshine on a chilly day– all gifts there for the taking when we make the time for them.
Exercise gurus have written a great deal about the advantages of walking as a means of keeping fit. For me, the mental health benefits are even more important than the physical ones. Since Jeff’s death I have all but dropped my once-steady habit of walking two to five miles per day. It’s a practice I am gradually trying to adopt again. I fell out of the habit, but I need to get back into it, if only to help me beat back depression.
The weather has been unusually warm, but the leaves are finally beginning to show some dazzling colors here and there. For those of you north of me where foliage is already at peak, or those south of the equator enjoying the glories of springtime, it’s a perfect time to get outside and bless our days with some invigorating strolls.
Grab a portable device that holds some of your favorite tunes, or an interesting audiobook or podcast, or just use the time for quiet meditation. If you take a camera with you, feel free to send me a photo of something you see on your walk this week. You can email a photo as an attachment to defeatdespair@verizon.net. Let’s channel our inner Thoreau and get moving!
Eric sends us this lovely sight from one of his favorite walks:
If you’ve tasted those North Georgia apples, you know why the deer loves them!
And Susan reminds us that one can enjoy a stroll indoors or outdoors:
Airports can be great places to walk, even when you have no choice but to do so.
This post was first published seven years ago. If you’ve been following my recent posts, you know that Teresa and I still enjoy walking together (most recently in London, where we probably logged even more miles than in the Cotswolds). Since my brain injury, I have become a die-hard morning person and now that’s almost always when I take my daily walk down to the river and back.
The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
Defeat Despair 