Come on take a little walk with me. I show you world you may not believe where beauty is in the everyday you see…Come on take a little walk with me.
— Scott McCatchy, singer/songwriter, released 2006
Once upon a time we had a neighborhood of walkers. We walked in the heat and in the cold with an agreement we’d walk as long as temperatures were above 24 and less than 100 degrees. We wore blaze orange safety vests and looked like a road crew. We often shocked authentic road crews as we zipped right by them on our walks. Life events eventually stole our time and scattered the walkers. As fall descends with leaves of gold and comfortable temperatures I’ve thought about walking and its benefits. Years ago, Sam had back surgery and every question I asked the doctor had the same answer, “He must walk.” According to the doctor the answer to pain and recovery was walking. So, we walked. We started with a loop through the kitchen and around the living room and back again. Then we graduated to the driveway and on down the road.
When the pandemic started and the fitness centers closed, I borrowed walking DVDs from my walking neighbor. I walked for miles never leaving the sunroom. Some days I still do. Melissa, a fitness instructor, teaches proper walking techniques at the onset of each session. She promises walking properly applies whether barefoot, wearing athletic shoes, or high heels. A proper foot strike affects gait and posture. Most of us probably take for granted the mechanics and value of walking for both body and soul. One day I did my walking DVD while barefooted. It was a strange sensation. I liked it so I researched what it meant to walk. That’s when I found Libby DeLana and her new book “Do/Walk/Navigate earth, mind and body. Step by step.” Libby walked every single day for 9 years, the equivalent of 25,000 miles or the circumference of the earth. About which Libby says:
Changing seasons make the world feel hopeful, familiar and promising. They are a powerful reminder that change is the natural state of affairs. These inevitable shifts can bring with them a beautiful feeling of newness and also the feeling that nothing is stable. Walking in every distinct and unique season has been a series of glorious and unyielding lessons. An ongoing lesson in transformation, in embracing all that is in each unique moment… When I started I didn’t know the profound impact it would have on my life. In fact, at the time it felt like a small gesture, a simple dedication of some time to get outside and go for a walk. After 9 years of walking every day, it has become an essential practice that feels like a devotion-perhaps even prayer…I had forgotten we are part of the natural world, with a need to slow down before we can really understand, know and hear what we need.
Chapter 3 is about walking barefoot, also called earthing or grounding. Some days we just need to feel the earth under our feet.
Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].
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