We move by walking. Sometimes we walk from place to place and have an agenda in mind. We walk to the refrigerator from the couch, we walk out to the mailbox to check to see is if there is any news from the world, we walk up and down the isles of the grocery store.

Sometimes we are more adventurous exploring the places of our dreams. We walk paths that are represented by lines on a map and if we are lucky, lose ourselves in the process.

Walks feed our genius, our heart, and nourishes our soul. How does walking clear the way for clearer thinking? Walking slows time down to match your pace. Time is slowed and ideas have a chance to meander testing idea connections until it finds the right dance partner to hook up with. When walking, your thinking is make more concrete, taming the fluttering swarm of drunken butterflies between your ears. Walking is like writing in that it is a form of thinking. 'Walking is thinking' in the same way as 'writing is thinking' for solidifying ideas.

With your leg muscles pumping, the breath flows in and out matching your pace, with the air caressing your skin, the warmth of the sun heating your face, the sights and sounds of your environment holding you in there embrace, through the activities of the body, walking gives form to thinking.

A hike can last a lifetime. A lifetime can be contained in a hike. A hike can start a life. A lifetime can be ended with a hike. We are on a metaphoric hike in this life. - Erling Kagge [^1]

A lifetime filled with walking is how I want to be remembered. When it's over, I hope I can say that I walked enough, smiled enough, laughed enough, and loved enough. If I could, I would forever remember this life by the walks I took.

References

• [^1]: Erling Kagge (2018): Walking: one step at a time, Penguin Publishing Group

Other stuff I've written on this topic

• Study Practice
• You are what you do
• Live a gentle human-sized life