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31 Days: Walk




Walking is my favorite form of exercise. It is also my favorite way of seeing a place. When I went to Europe three years ago, my sister and I walked everywhere through London, Paris, Florence, Venice, and Rome. With the exception of subway rides, bus tours, and a magical trip through the canals of Venice, we saw the sights on our feet.

I love the line of Wild when Cheryl Strayed says, "I'm going to walk back to the woman my mother thought I was." Walking is healing. I am fascinated by those life-changing walks, like Pacific Crest Trail or Camino del Santiago in Spain. Someone I go to church with made this walk and told my book club all about her adventure. I went home and bought several books off of Amazon about it, adding it to my bucket list of things I want to do.

Walking is motion. It is moving from where you are to where you want to be. You can observe as you go, taking in the scenery along the way. Or you can stare at the ground concentrating on where you are going. The one thing you never see is people walking backwards or looking behind them as they walk.

I love this notion of walking, of moving. Someone may have walked out on me but that doesn't mean my life stopped. I can see his walking out as something that happened for me, not to me. I can hold my head up, taking in the scenery of everything around and the people who are still there, as I walk into the life that is waiting for me.

Walking is motion. And when life hands you something you don't want, motion is the only way out of that place. Walking can bring you back to who you want to be or it can take you to the person you never dreamed you could be. It is all in the motion.
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