Walking. The word implies so many things, yet he is concentrating on the intention behind the word, and the action imbedded therein.
The intention that has surfaced in the recent year is one void of goals or destinations, as is often associated with hiking. Because such mental measuring occupies our minds with tedious time and speed calculations, and challenges our need for serenity with cerebral competiveness, we may consider hiking an event, and walking an occurrence.
It was early afternoon, by the time he had finished reading, scrambled up some calories, he entered the trail head. Springtime in Southern Utah brings with it a freshness of air and a spectrum of color against the rock forms and spaces of the canyon that feed his need, like few other environs. The need is for less, and the more he walked the less his mind was involved. He stopped trying to put names on things, and left behind his constant mental compass, choosing instead to forget the past moment and focus on the one at hand.
One step after another, deliberate walking is tougher than you may be thinking. Seems to be one of those places we reach without preparation, and then need to return once experienced. Like a runner who accepts the pain to reach the adrenaline moment, those endorphins kick in and she is “there.” This way of walking has similar stages, but is more within the reach of many that lack the gifts of the athlete.
He considers the walks with the old man. He never had to go very far. In fact, often it was just around a few bends from sight of the familiar, he would see the old man on his knees, “he leaned and loafed at his ease to observe a spear of summer grass” (Whitman).
The old man’s mental construct, so diminished by time, brought forward the same Zen-like qualities in demand by many of us, which when considered is simply a childlike fascination with the unsaid, the unnamed, and most importantly, the unclaimed.
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