Longing for an Infinite Walk

Our firefighters have been struggling for three weeks to control and contain four fires in the mountains to the east, north, and west of us.  Due to the dense smoke from these four large fires, the air quality has been very poor during this period in our valley area. 

The fires to the east and north have been brought under control.  Yesterday evening, for the first time in nearly a month, the skies were clear to the east and we could again see the Southern Cascade hills and mountains. 

I look forward to long morning walks this coming Labor Day Holiday weekend.  Americans celebrate Labor Day on the first Monday in September, and workers in other countries celebrate Labor Day on May 1st.  A pat on the back to all the billions of women and men who work hard to make the world a better and safer place to live within. 

Walking at daybreak will be a delight again with better air to breathe and clear views of the local mountains.  Temperatures at dawn are now a cool 60F. 

"Walking I am unbound, and find that precious unity of life and imagination, that silent outgoing self, which is so easy to loose, but which a high moments seems to start up again from the deepest rhythms of my own body.  How often have I had this longing for an infinite walk - of going unimpeded, until the movement of my body as I walk fell into the flight of streets under my feet - until I in my body and the world in its skin of earth were blended into a single act of knowing."
-  Alfred Kazin, The Open Street

"It’s all still there in heart and soul. The walk, the hills, the sky, the solitary pain and pleasure–they will grow larger, sweeter, lovelier in the days and years to come."
-   Edward Abbey  

Ways of Walking: Quotations, Sayings, Poems, Lore