A Walk …. with Lexi

To commemorate his birthday, I spent alot of time writing.  I would have gone walking, but we are experiencing a muggy heat wave in the NorthEast, and as much as I am a fan of Nature.. I am not a fan of heatstroke.

Lexi and I did get out for a walk yesterday…. we jaunted down to Otter Ponds so she could take a dip in the ponds before the heat of the day took over.

Because it was so early, when we got out to the ponds we were completely alone.  I wondered what it would have been like to have visited the ponds 100 years earlier.  Before the days of electricity, cars, phones… all the modern conveniences.  I then pulled my iPhone out of my back pocket, took a picture of Lexi playing by the waters edge, and uploaded it to Facebook. Crazy, even in my daydreaming of pioneering I can’t seem to resist a good status update.

Walking back, it was harder to imagine ourselves in the past, so my mind went to where it centers – the present.  Lexi galloped ahead, trying to out run the flock of mosquitoes that were chasing her… and I thought about the meaning of walking.  We have turned it into a form of exercise.  A chore.  I hate chores… but I love walking.   I thought about my Dad, and how he loves to walk his fields.  He surveys each hill, notes each change in the landscape, dutifully studies the wildlife, their habits – while they stand astute and study Dad and his habits.

I thought about my own occupation … how I sit for hours on end at my computer, on the phone, or studiously studying research for my workshops and masterminds.  I thought about how Thoreau scoffed  “When sometimes I am reminded that the mechanics and shopkeepers stay in their shops not only for the forenoon, but all the afternoon too, sitting with crossed legs, so many of them – as if the legs were made to sit upon – I think they deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago”  What he just described was being stir-crazy…. that feeling of phantom anxiety that I just can’t put a finger on.  Life is good, but I feel antsy, anxious and testy – ya, I guess you can say I go insane. The prescription to my insanity is not an the form of a pill, but a daily dose of walking – so why aren’t I taking this wonder drug more often?

“But the walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking exercise, as it is called, as the sick take medicine at stated hours – as the Swinging of dumb-bells or chairs; but is itself the enterprise and adventure of the day.”  HDT

Lexi found herself occupied by treeing a chattering red squirrel.  It still amuses me how alert and serious she becomes about our adventures.  In our near 3 mile walk, I had thought about the bane of my existance, the purpose of my life, what I needed to get at the store, and what work was awaiting for me when I returned.  Again, Thoreau’s words came back to me “The thought of some work will run in my head and I am not where my body is – I am out of my senses.  In my walks I would fain return to my senses.  What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?”

All the solutions to my life’s “so-called” problems came rushing to me …. while I took a walk … with Lexi.

Go – talk a hike Trail Blazers – go back to your senses.

Until Then, Hit the Heights!
Priscilla Hansen Mahoney
The Natural Leadership and Business Guide