In 2006 I dusted off my old walking shoes and realized it was time to drop 20 pounds and get healthy again. I started walking five miles a day every day I could manage. It’s been five years now, and I’ve logged my progress across the country by marking a map of my progress. In 2009 I reached my first goal of walking the distance from my home in northern Wisconsin to the friendly city of Seattle, Wash.
Since then, I’ve turned my sights further north and started marking my trek toward Anchorage, Alaska. My goal is to reach Anchorage by 2013 and hopefully celebrate my success by going to visit the quickly disappearing glaciers there.
Since I began my walking, I have encountered sleet, wind, rain, snow and ice. I have sweltered in the midwest humidity. I have shared deep talks with walking friends. I have been forced indoors onto my treadmill and into the local mall where I enjoy watching the Christmas decorations come out for the holiday season. I have watched my children enter elementary school, and I have struggled with personal relationships. Through it all, my walks have kept me grounded – literally.
I have marked the progress of time as I walked with books on tape, then books on CD, then books on iPod and fianlly books on my iPhone. I began my walks by logging a known distance with my car and then following that path daily. Then I invested in a pedometer and now have a GPS that lets me mark my distance wherever I might be. Ah, the benefits of advancing technology!
Recently, I have turned off the books, though. I walked in March with a medicine man in the Cook Islands who admonished me to take advantage of my walking meditation time. So, I’m turning off the noise and listening to my own thoughts now. I can’t say I make much sense of them, but Pa said I will in time. He was a wizend old man who seemed to know what was what. I believe him.
Walking. It won’t hurt my joints, it allows me meditation, and it is taking me to a beautiful goal of a helathy body and a glorious icy vacation. Stay tuned for my progress. Fall is in the air…with lots of rain. Hopefully it will dry out soon.
