Looking east on Kilkenny Lane near Red Bluff, California. I walk 3.6 miles on this cul de sac lane, four days each week, in the morning. I walk at daybreak on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning throughout the entire year.
The photographs on this post were taken in early November. It is one of my favorite seasons for walking in the morning.
Occasionally, a car might use this country lane, and I move to the side of the road. It is a very safe, peaceful, and quiet place.
Sometimes I listen to my MP3 player while I walk. Sometimes I walk in silence.
Sometimes I take my dog, Bruno, for a walk. Most often, I walk alone.
"Putting facts by the thousands,
into the world, the toes take off
with an appealing squeak which the thumping heel
follows confidentially, the way men greet men.
Sometimes walking is just such elated
pumping."
- Lyn Hejinian, Determination
"Every day, in the morning or evening, or both, take a walk in a safe and peaceful environment for less than an hour. The can be a great fountain of youth. Choose a place to walk that has no kind of disturbance. Walking done in a work environment and when your mind is busy is different; it is not as nutritious as the walking you do for yourself in the morning or evening in a quiet, peaceful, and safe place."
- Master Hua-Ching Ni, Entering the Tao, 1997, p. 135
Looking to the northeast on Kilkenny Lane. Mt. Lassen (10,000 feet) in the distance is capped with a little snow. These photos were taken in the Autumn.
"Walking is the natural recreation for a man who desires not absolutely to suppress his intellect but to turn it out to play for a season."
- Leslie Stephen
Looking west on Kilkenny Lane. The red leafed autumn colors are from Raywood Ash trees. The Yolly Bolly mountain range (7,000 feet) is to the west of the North Sacramento Valley.
So, see you on the road. You are welcome to join me on Kilkenny Lane for walking and Taijiquan.
"The interior solitude, along with the steady rhythm of walking mile after mile, served as a catalyst for deeper awareness. The solitude I found and savored on the Camino had an amazing effect on me. The busyness of my life slowly settled down as the miles went on. For a good portion of my life I had longed for a fuller experience of contemplation, that peaceful prayer of the heart in which one is able to look intently and see each piece of life as sacred. Ten days into the journey, totally unforeseen, the grace of seeing the world with startling lucidity came to me. My eyes took in everything with wonder. The experience was like looking through the lens of an inner camera – my heart was the photographer. Colors and shapes took on nuances and depths never before noticed. Each piece of beauty appeared to be framed: weeds along roadsides, hillsides of harvested fields with yellow and green stripes, layers of mountains with lines of thick mist stretching along their middle section, clumps of ripe grapes on healthy green vines, red berries on bushes, roses and vegetable gardens. Everything revealed itself as something marvelous to behold. Each was a work of art. I noticed more and more details of light and shadow, lines and edges, shapes, softness, and texture. I easily observed missed details on the path before me – skinny worms, worn pebbles, tiny flowers of various colors and shapes, black beetles, snails, and fat, grey slugs. I became aware of the texture of everything under my feet – stones, slate, gravel, cement, dirt, sand, grass. I responded with wonder and amazement. Like the poet Tagore, I felt that everything “harsh and dissonant in my life” was melting into “one sweet harmony”."
- Joyce Rupp
Study Tai Chi Chuan or Chi Kung or Philosophy with Mike Garofalo
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