Thinking Out Loud ~ Walking Without Purpose

Ruminating on a Walk

Thoreau writes in “Walking,” “But the walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking exercise . . . as the swinging of dumb-bells or chairs; but is itself the enterprise and adventure of the day.  If you would get exercise, think of a man’s swinging dumb-bells or his health, when those springs are bubbling up in far-off pastures unsought by him! Moreover, you must walk like a camel, which is said to be the only beast which ruminates when walking.  When a traveler asked Wordsworth’s servant to show him her master’s study, she answered, “Here is his library, but his study is out of doors.” P. 738

Walking is available online and gutenberg.org under the Harvard Classics.

NOTE: Ruminating along our walk is almost counter cultural. How can we measure how fast we’re walking if we stop to smell a flower or watch a bird feed its young? I recall walking with a friend in a natural setting. All my friend could talk about was work, work, and more work. My friend did not see the array of wild flowers. Nor did my friend see the Mexican blue bird that flew in front of us. And, my friend missed seeing the  two deer that were watching us. My friend didn’t relax. I think my friend would have felt much better if my friend took time to ruminate on our walk and enjoyed everything that the walk offered to us.