This
past weekend, my girls and I walked.
They
began Saturday morning by marching with the middle and high school band in our
annual town parade as part of the Apple Blossom Festival. It’s a pretty short
parade, not one of the grueling marches I’ve seen on some July 4ths, and the
weather was pleasant. It is so much fun to see them passing by, concentrating
on their instruments, clearly happy to be part of the event.
On
Sunday, the girls and I joined two of my sisters, two nieces, and two of my
cousins for the annual Lowell General hospital Team Walk for Cancer Care. This
was Team Lamarre’s third year
walking. Our first was the spring after my Dad died. While he didn’t live long
enough to take advantage of the services offered to cancer patients through
this center, we learned how important it was to have them. And really, that
first year, we were looking for some way to publicly remember Dad. Team Lamarre chose the 6-mile route this
year, my sisters and I wanting to push ourselves, feeling we needed to do something
a little more. It felt good.
I walk
when I am upset. I walk when I feel reflective. My husband and I have some of
our best talks while walking. I walk to
see the neighborhood and stay connected. “I am
alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily,
without getting there in spirit.” (Henry David Thoreau, Walking) Walking in my neighborhood – or along the beach, or on a
conservation trail, or through the city – brings me to the present. I see the
world around me more clearly. I see the thoughts within me more clearly. As
Thoreau says, I want to bring my spirit with me, present in the steps, and not
carry around my worries. Walking helps me think by allowing me to leave my
worries behind and be where I am, completely.
I
woke up early this morning, and could have taken a short walk. The birds were
certainly calling. But I opened the laptop instead and walked across the keyboard.
In an ideal world, I would take both types of walks daily.
Lots of others are writing their Slice of Life this morning. You can read them all here.