My dog, Bruno, and I walk every morning for 45 to 60 minutes. We walk in our suburban neighborhood in Vancouver, Washington State. The autumn season can bring cool morning temperatures between 45F to 55F, overcast skies, fog, dampness, and rain. We wear warm clothes and try to stay dry.
I began my daily morning walks in 1998.
"I was the world in which I walked."
- Wallace Stevens, Tea at the Palaz of Hoon
- Wallace Stevens, Tea at the Palaz of Hoon
"Allow walking to occupy a place of stature equal with all the other important activities in your life. As difficult as that might seem, here's how to do it. Make it a practice.
That's right. Turn your walking into a vehicle for personal growth
as well as for fitness. This will add a higher level of integrity and
intention to your approach because you will find that it is a way to
deepen and upgrade your relationship to your body. Instead of merely
giving your legs a good workout, you'll be practicing to relax more,
to breathe better, to expand your vision, to open up your range of
motion, to increase your energy, to feel and sense your body. The list
is exciting - and endless. With all of this to look forward to, your
walking program will take its place alongside everything in your life
you value most, and you'll be amazed at how easy it is to schedule
time for something you really love to do."
- Katherine Dreyer, Chi Walking, p. 56
- Katherine Dreyer, Chi Walking, p. 56
"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
"If you look for the truth outside yourself,
It gets farther and farther away.
Today walking alone, I meet it everywhere I step.
It is the same as me, yet I am not it.
Only if you understand it in this way
Will you merge with the way things are."- Tung-Shan
"Walking meditation means to enjoy walking without any intention to
arrive. We don't need to arrive anywhere. We just walk. We enjoy
walking. That means walking is already stopping, and that needs some
training. Usually in our daily life we walk because we want to go
somewhere. Walking is only a means to an end, and that is why we do not
enjoy every step we take. Walking meditation is different. Walking is
only for walking. You enjoy every step you take. So this is a kind of
revolution in walking. You allow yourself to enjoy every step you take.
The Zen master Ling Chi said that "the miracle is not to walk on burning charcoal or in the thin air or on the water; the miracle is just to walk on earth." You breathe in. You become aware of the fact that you are alive. You are still alive and you are walking on this beautiful planet. That is already performing a miracle. The greatest of all miracles is to be alive. We have to awaken ourselves to the truth that we are here, alive. We are here making steps on this beautiful planet. This is already performing a miracle. But we have to be here in order for the miracle to be possible. We have to bring ourselves back to the here and the now."
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Resting in the River
The Zen master Ling Chi said that "the miracle is not to walk on burning charcoal or in the thin air or on the water; the miracle is just to walk on earth." You breathe in. You become aware of the fact that you are alive. You are still alive and you are walking on this beautiful planet. That is already performing a miracle. The greatest of all miracles is to be alive. We have to awaken ourselves to the truth that we are here, alive. We are here making steps on this beautiful planet. This is already performing a miracle. But we have to be here in order for the miracle to be possible. We have to bring ourselves back to the here and the now."
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Resting in the River
- Ways of Walking
- Walking Meditation
- Walking Quotations
- Walking Bibliography
- Circle Walking: Bagua
- Walking the Labyrinth
- Garden Walking
- Walking Qigong
- Walking Staff
Michael, thank you for this post - it is exactly what I needed to read this morning!
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