ICP #2

Generally, my practice is to walk two or three times a day.  About once every ten days or so, I only get in one period of pedestrianism, but since 04 October 2014, I have not missed a day of walking yet.  I've been asked before if the walking ever gets boring, and early in the process before I had embraced the idea of the daily practice, the specter of boredom was something that I actually spent more than a little time dreading.

Like many things in my imagination, I completely missed the mark giving any mental or spiritual bandwidth away to anxiety associated with boredom.  Early in the first month of daily walking, I did find that I had to get about a mile under the soles of my feet before my mind would settle in to the rhythm of my own steps, but once that happened and I stopped thinking about whatever it was that popped into my mind my senses were opened in ways that I had forgotten about.  Let's face it, these weren't new experiences, but I had been deliberately shielding myself from them with the accoutrements of technology for many years.  I'd insulated myself from the weather with clothing and housing.  I'd not gone hungry or thirsty for a very long time.  Noise and smell were dampened by the steel and glass protection afforded by my automobile.  Even the speed of life had been changed by the application of technology.

Today, I fell into the plodding rhythm of my march a little bit sooner.  I feld the breeze on my right cheek, and the light hint of humidity in the cool air of the morning.  The smell of plants and exhaust were in the air, and if I'm not mistaken I tasted just a little of the first hint of fall.  All of that coupled with the things that I saw placed before me a sensual cornucopia that transcended boredom immediately and placed me in the path of beauty.

Heron Sculpture illuminated by the waning of the afternoon sun

The experience of being one with the environment is a feeling that I've come to cherish.  That sense of connection is something that I'm able to carry with me throughout the non-walking parts of my day, albeit to a lesser extent.

South (left) and North (right) on the trail this morning

The concern with boredom was completely unfounded, and the sensation of oneness with all the glory that surrounds me during these stretches of serenity is something that I wish I could share fully with you.  The sound of the footfalls clears the mind and changes the way you observe.  This change is not instantaneous, but it is inevitable as the action associated with the practice takes a course that is both irresistible for any great period of time and fulfilling beyond anything I expected.

Severn River looking East

The pictures fall short in capturing the sensation, but they hearken my memory back to the flow of the breeze, the sound of the traffic, the pinch of the mosquito, and the warmth of the sun.  It's a richness of experience that I've been seeking for awhile, and it was waiting to be experienced just a few steps outside the door.