Week Twenty-Five: Go for a Walk

There was nowhere to go but everywhere.
– Jack Kerouac

I love walking.

I love walking to a destination, I love walking for no reason, I love walking for the sake of walking, I love walking for exercise, I even love walking when I’m lost.

I have spent the majority of my life as a pedestrian. I got my driver’s license pretty late (G1/Learner’s at 20 and full license at 27). I was 26 when I first had regular access to a vehicle and I didn’t own my first car until I was 28. To get from place to place I felt (and still feel) most comfortable on foot, where decision making can be slower and I can safely stop and look around.

I also walk to explore. I have never been on an “all inclusive”, beach chair/resort vacation (although bottomless beverages sound like fun) and the only time I went on a cruise ship I spent hours doing laps of the deck. When I travel, I walk everywhere. Last year my husband and I went to Europe for two weeks. We rented a car, took planes, road buses, and traveled by train around four countries, and we still walked over 200 km. I feel like I don’t know a city until I have spent hours exploring it by foot; reaching places you could never see by car.

As an adult, I once heard another able-bodied adult say something along the lines of “Ugghh do we have to walk there? I hate walking!” Maybe I’m naive, but that sentiment had never occurred to me. For me, walking is a natural extension of my human form. It’s how I move from one place to the next, physically and mentally. Going for a walk is like reading a good book, eating an incredible meal, or having the perfect glass of wine. It’s the way I reset my brain, calm myself down, or get myself energised. I am immensely grateful for my physical ability to walk so, naturally, hearing this negativity came as a bit of a surprise.

I walk for a lot of reasons and without a doubt, going for a walk always makes me happy. When I broke my foot in my early twenties, the worst part was not the pain, it was my inability to walk long distances. In fact, I was so stubborn and ansty that I delayed the healing process with my far-too-literal interpretation of “walking cast”.

This week I went for a long walk at least once a day. When I got tired of sitting at my desk I went for a walk. When my chronic pain flared up I went for a walk. When I wanted to decompress before bed I went for a walk. When I wanted to feel a little happier, I went for a walk. And it worked.

When I sat down to write this, I thought about all the ways that walking makes me happy and all the reasons I go for a walk. Here’s a short list.