The Art of Walking (2 November 2014)

"In its mixture of direct physical engagement and relaxed, aesthetic awareness, the walk serves as an ideal vehicle for the poet who wishes to evoke the world in both its seductive beauty and its obstinate solidity.’ (20)

‑ Roger Gilbert Walks in the World (1991)

As I walker I saunter in my thinking and think when I am out and about on the hoof.  Never mind the four-wheeled conveyances; when I can walk-about, I do.  _And it never ceases to amaze me that there is an art to walking.

I have long realized that walking is not just a matter of ‘getting somewhere.’  Of course you can use your two legs to do just that; go places on your two feet as an alternative to taking a car, bus , or plane.  That is the ordinary and legitimate use of walking!  But the art of walking involves something more; it embraces, first of all, (1) a spirit of openness to the way and then, simultaneously, (2) a resolve to let the saunter itself be worthwhile.  The art of walking is about experiencing yourself in the context of that which opens up around you as you are going on a chosen or perhaps stumbled upon way, however and wherever it takes you.  The art of walking becomes evident when we stop running in our usual, ordinary rounds and go!  As per usual for me _Off to the woods!

A true walk need have no destination; though a ‘place to go’ doesn’t ever ruin a good walk, well taken.  "Let's path out to that place that we heard about!" or "Do you remember [that place]?  Let's go back there today!"  

Having an urge to get up to go or be somewhere interesting is how a walk usually begins.  There is often in me a desire simply ‘to go’ – and not just for some merely useful reason.  I can walk to the store, and I can walk to work, and enjoy both—but the walk that employs 'the art of walking' is one where there is hope of something interesting being encountered, experienced or discovered; either along the way or at the desired end-point—whether or not that end is reached on 'this' particular walk!

While the urge to simply ‘get up and go’ is the initiation of most artful walks, you can find yourself on a good walk for particular reasons.  I sometimes find myself “gone rambling,” as one old rune puts it.  A sudden realization of some free time liberates that desire in me to get out of town and onto a trail.  But sometimes a necessary errand takes me to a place where a potential walk simply presents itself; I drive out to a market out of town and see a trail behind the premises, and I ask the owner, "oh, where does that go?"  And if interesting and with permission, I go!  Or I am on my way to an appointment in a town I don't usually visit and see a sign along the road for a trail or park, and I want to investigate before I go home!  A saunter is then initiated -- and I'm off on a new trail or gone down a lonesome, grassy road -- just to see what might be there. 

At other times, going out just for some exercise (i.e., taking yourself for a walk rather than your pet) opens you to an excursion that was unplanned and unexpected, leading to physical and mental pleasures unanticipated before you found yourself walking off hither or thither.  When we merely walk for exercise; when we ‘go for walks’ to lower our cholesterol and get in shape, we may not let ourselves really walk.  We are often on a leash that is self-imposed and that we are unwilling to relinquish, at least most of the time. 

I see the art of walking as an earthen (i.e., "naturalistic") spiritual discipline.  A walk can be an active meditation in that it empowers us to slough-off the burdens of the day, the week, coming to terms with the condition in which we presently find ourselves.  A good walk opens us to actual, physical vistas that we may find metaphor the varied possibilities that are always presenting themselves; if we could but ‘see’ them--realizing in them potential vectors indicating runes of spiritual maturity; our self-realization as the best version of ourselves that we can be.  To walk well is to be able to just go; not irresponsibly (i.e., not abandoning what needs done or what we must do) but with a deep sense of opening to the Earth & Cosmos and thus to ourselves as manifestations of the worlds in which we subsist and have out being in becoming.

To nurture the art of walking is to (3) allow ourselves time to just saunter; to amble about and ramble here and there, preferably beyond the bounds of our usual daily rounds.  “Well, I’ve got to go out and do my steps, now,” I’ve heard people say.  And then they dutifully go for their ‘walk,’ often coming back feeling tired or just bored; ready to do ‘something else’—anything else.  At best, they feel they have ‘done their duty’ for the day!  _And how sad is that?  Learn the art of sauntering and ambling, and you will get your necessary exercise and possibly much more.  (4) Be awake to your environs wherever you walk, and (5) pay attention to the presence of Nature all around you.  These are two more tenets of art of walking that can benefit you even when walking ordinary errands.

Engaging in walking as a spiritual discipline teaches us to love the ramble and the amble; the occasional jaunt that was unplanned and unexpected, as well as the regular walk taken to heighten the senses and unburden oneself of daily stresses and the needless fixation on mundane obsessions.  Good walking un-stresses the body and promotes healthy breathing.  It encourages a natural rhythm and ‘gets the blood flowing.’  And if you walk well, you will probably have more experiences worth remembering than if you just ‘take your body out for a walk’ as an obligation.

Good walking promotes devout thinking as well.  I cannot count the times when, out for a walk, trying to overcome the lethargy that stems from too much work or being too busy, my mind has suddenly ‘come on’ and an interesting idea occurred to me that I then thought actively about as I continued my walk; paying attention to the idea while not losing focus on the beauty of Nature all around me.  Good walking and good philosophy go hand in hand.  Philosophers have often been walkers; to walk meditatively stimulates the mind and frees it to overflow its ordinary channels.

The art of walking is also conducive to poetic creation, as the rhythm of the walk can inspire the cadence of lines that then may be crafted into verse and become a poem.  A good number of my best poems have been conceived and worked out while out on a particular inspiring walk.

A walk is also a good time for thoughtful dialogue with a walking partner; working out our spiritual directions with another devoted saunterer.  The movement of the walk – when well taken – seems to inspire in people an existential kind of movement.  Whereas we can become like a blocked waterway when sitting or working, walking opens the watercourses of the soul, launching us into a renewing and reinvigorating flux & flow, wherein we may find it easier to work though conundrums and problems, our thoughts becoming mobile within the movement of the walk, our emotions bathed and comforted by experiencing the scenes through which we pass as we amble.  The movement and the sensory impressions can often inspire new insights into our dilemmas and new possibilities of interpretation.

As we move into late Autumn – that season called by the Celts “An dudlach” (The Gloom), I encourage you to saunter as you will, freely as you may, and nurture in yourself that delight in ambling about that can liberate the earthen soul from what deadens, oppresses and restricts it.  Walk responsibly; walk meditatively.  Walk often; and you will get the exercise you need--but also much more.  The Earth is a House of Wonders; even still—if you know where to look, and make the time to go ambling there.  Sometimes the smallest things we may see on a walk inspire us the most!  I urge you to learn the freedom that the body and mind can find in the way of disciplined wandering.

“The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself.”

‑ Wallace Stevens  Adagia (1957)