My daily walks include my walk from home to the bus stop, the bus stop to the coffee shop, and when I am walking with children to the forest. Its been almost a year ago when I decided to leave home at least 3 hours earlier before my work. In the beginning, walking was a way for me to relax, prepare, and drink coffee before I start a busy day.
But recently, walking has become a form of meditation- a way for me to reflect and gather my own thoughts. I believe I don’t exist to simply exist, but to enjoy, make connections, embrace, and question what’s around me. I see the rain dripping down from the sky, meeting my skin and sending shivers all over my body. I breathe the air provided by the trees who have stood tall and proud over the years, and feel my heart beat pound a little harder as my lungs say “thank you” once again for the gift of breathing. I walk further and further to get to my destination, and in my head I question my own map- “why did I choose to walk this path again?”
Surrounded by other beings (nature, materials, city), I walk also not to detach myself completely from routine but to explore different ways to do and look at my routine. I feel blessed to live in a city surrounded by nature (or is it nature surrounded by a city?) and to be able to walk the same path each time and learn something new. Walking has become a form of research and exploration, where the same path doesn’t always seem so familiar. I know that this path doesn’t always physically change. But it is when I walk that it becomes unfamiliar, as I finally see things that may have existed for a period of time, but just needed someone to stop and walk slower to be noticed.
