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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Lonely as a Cloud
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StevHep
Shipmate
# 17198
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Posted
Long solitary walks are reputed to be a time for reflection, an occasion for mulling over the great problems of life, a zone of profundity. I often go for long walks in urban or semi-urban settings and they have only ever inspired two thoughts-
1) half the population seem to require to have a dog in order to walk anywhere, and
2) I rarely see children outside playing and if I do the chances are that they are girls, which makes me rather worry about the health and fitness prospects for our nations boys.
Has anyone experienced some deeper insights than this while walking and/or any tips for how to raise my mind to higher things while gently strolling?
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My Blog Catholic Scot
http://catholicscot.blogspot.co.uk/
@stevhep on Twitter
Posts: 241 | From: Exeter | Registered: Jul 2012
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
I usually spend my walks watching things. If I am in a park I stop and watch the birds about their business and admire the variety of colour in their feathers. When I was living in central London (Old Street so very near the City) I used to love walking the busy streets and admiring the architecture, looking up to wonder at the interesting artefacts on the buildings. I find these walks a good time of reflection and very refreshing.
But I also do walks for thinking, usually when planning an essay or tutorial, then I hardly notice the surroundings at all but find I can be absorbed by my project away from the distractions and clutter of home. I think that is the main drive for both my walking styles, removing myself from the distractions of home, whether it be to observe nature or to think my thoughts.
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'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams
Dog Activity Monitor
My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
A friend of mine who goes for long solitary walks (without dog) once told me that the dogs she meets always look around to see where her dog is and seem puzzled when they can't spot it - as if humans have no business going for walks unaccompanied...
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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StevHep
Shipmate
# 17198
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Posted
Sometimes I make a point of incorporating the River Exe in my walk (by it, not on it) for the purposes of gauging how severe recent rainfall has been. Yesterday I noticed that most of the swans and ducks had given up struggling against the Exe in raging torrent mode and had retired to grouse on what remained of the river bank by Exeter Quay.
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My Blog Catholic Scot
http://catholicscot.blogspot.co.uk/
@stevhep on Twitter
Posts: 241 | From: Exeter | Registered: Jul 2012
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
My dog does the same - always looking for doggy company. Humans don't run nearly fast enough!
I take my labrador out for at least an hour a day - and I do see children out walking with their parents (and dogs!) every day.
There is hope!!
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
From my pov I usually avoid dogs if I see them running loose anywhere; for me, few things are worse than having something like a large German Shepherd spot you from afar and start racing excitedly towards you. Many a walk has been suddenly curtailed for this reason.
Other than that, long country walks along the footpath or towpath are good, though a surprising number of people seem incapable of doing this without their phone or MP3s. Which is missing the point: how are you going to soak up the pleasures of wildflowers, the sound of birdsong and the various little natural treasures that are there to be discovered, if your attention is completely elsewhere?
The natural treasures in themselves are often food for thought – the beauty of butterflies, of opening a horse chestnut’s spiky green casing and seeing the gleaming nut inside; the sleek perfection of a blackbird, the pleasure of bright buttercups or delicate poppies in fields and the way the clouds drift past, taking fantastical shapes… it requires slowing down to a different pace but it’s all there. The land is a book with a variety of slowly changing illustrations, and tells an ongoing story that you can read, with a little practice.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
It's not that people are incapable of walking without dogs, it is just that the threat of your dog destroying your house is a great motivator for walking.
I have spent the last six weeks or so of walks wondering if a nearby neighbor is ever going to bother to remove the dead squirrel from his front yard. You tend to notice what unspeakably disgusting things are on the ground ten feet ahead of you when you go for dog walks, and get pretty good at steering around them.
There is another house on our route where they have an Eames lounge chair on the back porch, which seems an odd place to keep a chair that retails for just under $5,000 when new. I often wonder if they know what they have, and how often people stop to make low-ball offers.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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churchgeek
Have candles, will pray
# 5557
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Posted
When I was younger, I used to take walks and talk to God. Not in a pious prayerful sense, but as I would talk to any friend taking the walk with me. Expressing delight, complaining about aches and pains, cracking jokes, that sort of thing.
You can take it to a more pious level, of course, by giving thanks for the nice things you see, and asking for God's blessing on the people you pass.
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I reserve the right to change my mind.
My article on the Virgin of Vladimir
Posts: 7773 | From: Detroit | Registered: Feb 2004
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churchgeek
Have candles, will pray
# 5557
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Posted
Oh - and if you're walking for meditation and not so much for exercise, bring a camera along. Even the camera in your phone. Looking at things through the lens is an interesting, potentially meditative/contemplative way to look at them.
Once I was walking home, a 6 mile walk, and I tried an experiment: take 100 (or maybe 150, I don't remember) steps and find something to photograph, trying to compose the shot decently at least. It was fun finding little details around me by doing that. It also helped with the boredom of a very familiar route.
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I reserve the right to change my mind.
My article on the Virgin of Vladimir
Posts: 7773 | From: Detroit | Registered: Feb 2004
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StevHep
Shipmate
# 17198
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by churchgeek:
Oh - and if you're walking for meditation and not so much for exercise, bring a camera along. Even the camera in your phone. Looking at things through the lens is an interesting, potentially meditative/contemplative way to look at them.
Once I was walking home, a 6 mile walk, and I tried an experiment: take 100 (or maybe 150, I don't remember) steps and find something to photograph, trying to compose the shot decently at least. It was fun finding little details around me by doing that. It also helped with the boredom of a very familiar route.
I think that this kind of approach appeals more to some temperaments than others. I find focussing on details is distracting. I find harmony and balance the most attractive quality in a scene. So to the extent that I'm paying attention to my surroundings, rather than daydreaming, on a walk I look to how things blend and complement each other. This does mean I am perpetually annoyed by the intrusion of motor cars (though not, strangely, trains) but we all have our cross to bear
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My Blog Catholic Scot
http://catholicscot.blogspot.co.uk/
@stevhep on Twitter
Posts: 241 | From: Exeter | Registered: Jul 2012
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The Midge
Shipmate
# 2398
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Posted
Dad is coming to stay with his Dog. That means I will be encouraged to go out for a walk, correction: swim, to prevent the crazy animal destroying my house.
I really should go out more because a meditative walk is good for the soul. It just the rain and the depth of mud is a big de-motivator.
In regards to getting children out and about, try having a look at the Play England Website. They have excellent research into that matter.
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Some days you are the fly.
On other days you are the windscreen.
Posts: 1085 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
The land is a book with a variety of slowly changing illustrations, and tells an ongoing story that you can read, with a little practice.
I'm not the beautiful writer that Ariel is so I'll just add -- heck yeah! I don't walk much but my son does and he usually comes home in a much better mood than he set out.
Even from my window, the sight of nature in action, a bird building a nest or an opossum trotting through the back yard, reminds me that there are busy lives going on around me that would laugh at my non-essential concerns. Put's things in perspective.
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
I think in mmy experience two different experience s are being talked about here. First the attentive walk, this is often quite short but it has at its core the practice of paying attention to where you are either through an ongoing attentiveness (an extreme form of this is Buddhist walking meditation) or through specific acts of awareness e.g. taking photos. The second what I will call the long tramp. This requires at least for me walking a good distance at one stretch. For the first hour will drives me along, then something else takes over and the rythmn becomes natural, but also my thoughts become thicker, with ideas shaping and reshaping in a smooth way until eventually they are so thick they stop and there is just me and the rythmn.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
For me the walk is to begin to leave behind specific thought and to find a place to be still and let go as much thought as possible. Photography is meditative for me as well. Photography is about harmony and balance, even when it appears to be focusing on details.
Indeed, for me, focusing on details of a composition allows my magpie mind to quiet.
Any camera will do, but an SLR is best. Looking through the viewfinder, no glare, no outside distractions. Shutting out everything except what appears in there, is the most relaxing. A miniature, isolated world anywhere I happen to be.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Midge:
Dad is coming to stay with his Dog. That means I will be encouraged to go out for a walk, correction: swim, to prevent the crazy animal destroying my house.
I promise you that the dog walk is good for what ails you. I've woken up on the verge of massive hangovers, only to have them staved off by an hour long constitutional, and that certainly wouldn't have happened without the dog.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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StevHep
Shipmate
# 17198
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Posted
I went for a long walk today and noted that one thing I do, which is probably quite sad, is think about what I wrote or read on Social media and what I'm going to write or read.
Including this post.
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My Blog Catholic Scot
http://catholicscot.blogspot.co.uk/
@stevhep on Twitter
Posts: 241 | From: Exeter | Registered: Jul 2012
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
I enjoy walking by myself, but our dog is so frantic to "go" (ANYWHERE) that I'd feel terribly guilty about going for a walk without taking her along...even though I don't walk nearly fast enough for her.
Here in rural America fitness walkers tend to be rare birds. We have a few people, particularly seniors, in our immediate neighborhood who go out for a daily constitutional, but you almost never see younger people walking or even running. (Many years ago when I lived in an even smaller village I would get stopped now and then along my walk by concerned passers-by who wondered if I needed a lift somewhere.)
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
One of the great joys of my youth and early to middle adulthood was to take long walks, especially on the beach. It was the cure to so many ailments, and boosted my spirits so I could face the world again.
I do miss that so much. Looking at photos I took during some of those hikes brings back the memories of what the air felt like and how the light splattered all over the area, and the smell of the air and seeing dolphins and sea birds and turtle tracks. Those pictures also make me miss those special times even more.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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comet
Snowball in Hell
# 10353
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Other than that, long country walks along the footpath or towpath are good, though a surprising number of people seem incapable of doing this without their phone or MP3s. Which is missing the point: how are you going to soak up the pleasures of wildflowers, the sound of birdsong and the various little natural treasures that are there to be discovered, if your attention is completely elsewhere?
depends upon your motives for being there. When I go walk to think, clear my head, get away from everything, then yes - no phone, no music, actually I make a point of bringing NOTHING.
When I get out for exercise, I want to go at a quicker pace, even if I'm not intent on running. music helps with that a lot. in fact, I really can't go as fast as I'd like and stick to it if I don't have some driving music.
in that case, chances are I'm choosing a location more for it's speed benefits also. a groomed path, at the least (as opposed to just setting out through the woods) and sometimes if the weather sucks I'll just go to the track and run or walk around in circles. the point in that case is not so much to enjoy nature as to MOVE.
But if you see me walking on a beach or out in the woods with a pocket of treats to make friends with the neighbor dogs, I won't have the headphones on. I'll probably also have a big stupid grin on my face and the other pocket full of cool rocks and shells I've found.
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Evil Dragon Lady, Breaker of Men's Constitutions
"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” -Calvin
Posts: 17024 | From: halfway between Seduction and Peril | Registered: Sep 2005
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The Midge
Shipmate
# 2398
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
For me the walk is to begin to leave behind specific thought and to find a place to be still and let go as much thought as possible. Photography is meditative for me as well. Photography is about harmony and balance, even when it appears to be focusing on details.
Indeed, for me, focusing on details of a composition allows my magpie mind to quiet.
Any camera will do, but an SLR is best. Looking through the viewfinder, no glare, no outside distractions. Shutting out everything except what appears in there, is the most relaxing. A miniature, isolated world anywhere I happen to be.
I gave this a try and it worked for me. Weird album produced (that is perfectly normal for me, according to Mrs Midge).
I went to a beautiful place this time, with Dad's dog. It might be better if the sun came out or there were flowers in the meadow. Even so, there was plenty of things to see once your attention is focused on them. I did feel refreshed and invigorated by the physical and spiritual exercise.
I might try to rerun the exercise but look for evidence for issues around my town, signs of loneliness and distress etc. Try and get a similar feel for what is going on that we tend not to notice- an easy thing to do in a wealthy country town.
It is similar to Celtic sensing prayer that I first tried when on retreat. Note to self: I should get out and try this more often.
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Some days you are the fly.
On other days you are the windscreen.
Posts: 1085 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jedijudy:
One of the great joys of my youth and early to middle adulthood was to take long walks, especially on the beach. It was the cure to so many ailments, and boosted my spirits so I could face the world again.
I do miss that so much. Looking at photos I took during some of those hikes brings back the memories of what the air felt like and how the light splattered all over the area, and the smell of the air and seeing dolphins and sea birds and turtle tracks. Those pictures also make me miss those special times even more.
I always hankered after a seaside cottage so that I could walk on the beach any time. Not any more, if you look at UK seasides just now!
It's pouring down here but the pooch still loves her walks - she doesn't notice the rain! I have waterproof everything and really enjoy these wet walks without a soul around ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I'm so glad I was young in less fearful times, as I needed to get out and walk for miles on my own in order to escape from, and process, the stresses and strains of growing up. That need has got less now, but I still find myself on regular occasions getting out for a quick constitutional (fortunately I live in a beautiful area so there are lots of possibilities) - I call it 'Walking my invisible dog'. That dog is a really good companion - he strangely only needs walking when the weather is dry! ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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