Out Walking
Getting grounded in unsettled times
In this age of fast, global news, the deaths of radio host and mother of two Lisa Lopez-Galvan in Kansas City and Alexei Navalny in a Russian prison overshadow our monthly date at PeaceLinks today. In Gaza and Ukraine, heart-wrenching wars continue.
If you’re like me, you may feel connected to all the suffering behind each of those names, and far from it at the same time.
What’s a person to do?
PeaceLinks is a monthly archive of online writing about peace, cooperation, and the middle ground. With so much out of whack, I can think of nothing better to do than to get grounded by taking a walk. Here are some companionable posts to help you decide if that’s the right thing for you, too.
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of may be laid up with a muscle injury at the moment, but his archive provides plenty of inspiration for walking in all environments. Maybe because it reminds me of the miles and miles of walking I used to do when I lived in New York City in the 1990s, I’m partial to his post called “Why I Walk,” on discovering micro-communities that one misses by car and even bicycle:
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I love going walking with
in her newsletter, across the thousands of miles between our homes. Her camera knows just what I like to see in the roll of hills and the cameo appearances of wildlife. Her short poem about snowdrops fits the somber mood of these times while doing justice to beauty. Give yourself the treat of the poem and the photograph at the end of it:
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I found
of refreshing on the subject of fabled Pacific Northwest hikes and other outdoor adventures. From her archive, the photo-essay “wherever you go, there you are” sported beautiful photos of my home region while making the case for beauty in Maddy’s midwestern home. No place is perfect, and no one appreciates home like a traveler:
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of takes an urban planner’s view of what it takes to design a city for pedestrian activity. The impetus for his latest post was a question about whether electric cars would be more “green” (and offer more independence) than public transit:
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Checking in on a PeaceLinks alumnus this month,
leads foraging walks in Israel during times of peace, but this week’s post “Trudging” announced that he is temporarily slowing down with the birth of child #3. Congratulations, Shmuel and family!
That’s all for this edition. I’m going to wrap it up while the February sun is shining. Any guesses what I’m going to do next?
In all the unrest, sending you peace.
A walk outside - the free opportunity to step away from our relatively caged status quo to a very free-form, widened perspective. It can't hurt and it certainly can help. As we say to the horses - "Walk-on"
Far be it from me to not jump in on this topic, as I’m about 3 weeks from launching on a little walkabout of my own. After a recent near miss, could have been really awful accident, I decided I was given another chance at life, and I intend to get the most I can from every minute.
On March 4, our official launch date, I will be 66 years, 5 months, and 5 days. From March 4 until we arrive at the Canadian border, not a single day will be subtracted from my lifespan. Days in the wild are bonus days added to one’s total allotment.
I fly from Boise to San Diego on March 2 to a little town near the Mexican border where a marker for Mile 0 of the Pacific Crest Trail is located. Almost everything is ready, all the gear is purchased, trail food prep is keeping the kitchen busy, and I’m making sure I have all the Kindle books loaded that I want to take. I have the latest version of “Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills,” “Where There is No Doctor,” and my 800 other favorite books. Now it all needs to be weighed and judged whether it’s worth the weight.
Then comes five or six months of peace, pain, panic, patience, persistence, and pacing. Even now, the worst part of the trip is the thought of walking up to the trail marker at the Canadian border and knowing I once again immerse myself in the numbing comforts of civilization.
Maybe along the trail somewhere, I will have an epiphany about the next big thing.