Fotografaire - Blog and Photography

The Joy of Walking

March 20, 2007 on 10:29 pm | In General, Personal, Photography Exhibits |

The joy of walking is such a simple activity, yet it brings me such pleasure. I can’t define any specific reason why it brings me joy, as walking for me is a way of life, and one that has encompassed my lifestyle, ever since I can remember.

I started walking when I was a child, living in Queens, visiting relatives with my parents, walking to the subway stations. I also had to walk to school, and had to walk to see my friends. We eventually moved to suburbia (photo below), on Long Island. In order to get to the stores, school, or a friend’s house, I had to walk. I could cycle, but preferred walking.

Some of the distances were quite long. I walked two miles to school, each way (no, I am not whining). The closest store was one mile each way, and I walked there at least 4-5 times a week, often with friends, but more often to go and buy some food item, like bread or milk, that my mother needed right away. I walked to the bus stop, the train station, church, and anywhere that I needed to go. When visiting my grandparents, or my aunts, I walked…from the train station, the subway station, the bus, wherever, and whatever, walking was the mode of getting from point to point, and was a way of life, in suburbia, to get from point A to point B.

I had to walk to the beach during the summer months. We lived three blocks from the Long Island Sound, but, I had a season pass to the summer swim camp about two miles from home. I usually walked there, and took the bus home, after swimming all day.

I remember trying to compete with my father, whenever we walked to the store. He was a fast walker, and his long legs,moved with strides I struggled to keep up with, and it became a challenge for me. As I got older, the challenge was still there, but it became easier to keep up with him, and we would play games along the way, to see who could beat the other at some walking feat. Some of my most fond memories of my youth include walking with my father.

When I began working, I had to walk to the train station, the subway station (I worked in NYC, and lived on Long Island). Walking was a necessity, but not a chore, not something I dreaded doing.

To this day, walking is an integral part of my daily life. I walk for physical fitness, I walk because I love to, I walk for the joy of walking. I take in the scenery along my route, and appreciate the way the light, or the varied seasons cast unique perspectives over the same roads traveled, the same landscapes, etc., on different days.

Even a simple sign, that I pass by each day, takes on new dimensions during my walks. The light and shadows adding their own mystery and drama to a sign for a “hidden entrance”.

I never fail to enjoy the pure beauty of barns, the older the better, the more dilapidated, the more beautiful, in my eyes. I love the nostalgic feeling I get, when looking at them.

During winter, the same barn I pass every day, retains its beauty, through the trees, bare and naked, of foliage. I relish my walks, relish breathing in the air, the beauty that the morning brings me.

I love to look at houses while walking. Some have been around for more years than others, yet each house retains itsown loveliness, surrounded by nature’s beauty, as the trees hover, in umbrella fashion, like sentinels, over the house and the landscape.

When I am finished with my daily walk, it is bittersweet, as I feel invigorated, rejuvenated, not only physically, but emotionally, as well. Nature tends to make me emotional, and thankful that I live in a rural setting, with the countryside surrounding me, where beauty is just a blink of the eye away.

I wind down my walk, slowly inhaling the last few steps, before I step up on my porch, sit on my rocking chair, and rest a minute, as I sip some water and enjoy the moment, remembering what new visons I saw that morning, replaying them in my mind, from my porch with a view.

© Copyright - All Rights Reserved - No permission is given or allowed to reuse my photography or inspirational prose/quotations, or my poetry in any form/format without my expresss written consent/permission.