I was reading in the newspaper about the Climate-Change Czarina, Carol Browner. The reporter was clearly impressed that this woman walked a mile to work- everyday! And in stylish clothing!I walk approximately 5 miles about 4-5 mornings each week. I like it. It is fun and good exercise. It is , decidedly, not a big deal. On many work days I do errands on foot. The trip to my bank and back is about a mile. It takes me 20 minutes to go in both directions. My dog likes the walk too as many of the establishments we visit have cookies as a reward for being so well behaved in a queue.
I am not listing my walking routine to impress, but to show that walking has simply become part of my life. My 5 mile walk takes me about an hour and 15 minutes- longer if I run into a neighbor to talk to. My walk gives me a complete hour to think and arrange my day- only interrupted by the tweets and cackles of the birds.
So many people think that this amount of walking is a superhuman feat, but it is, quite literally, as easy as putting one foot in front of the other. Many are defeated in exercise programs because they feel they can never accomplish their goals. The reality is they just need to adjust how they think.
I use to be a long distance biker. My mother would wistfully dream of joining me on a jaunt so one Mother's Day I told her we would spend the weekend biking to my brother's house in Newmarket and back- about 75 miles round trip. I promised her she would make it and if we ran into any steep hills we would walk up them. I am pretty sure she doubted she could actually do it. But do it, she did- and it became an annual Mother's Day ride. It also changed her attitude about what she was capable of physically.
I think there are a lot of things in life that are like this. If you can break an impossible job into smaller tasks it can become doable. When I feel swamped by something I pick smaller parts of the problem to tackle. Eventually things are not so overwhelming and the problem is solved.
It reminds me that I keep dreaming of walking to Montreal. I bet I can.
3 comments:
Yes, I believe that you can. You are obviously a half full type of person. Have fun when you do it.
Ironically- I read in the paper this morning that yesterday was "Take A Walk" Day. I must have felt it in my bones.
I don't know if I am a half-full type of person. I think if you asked friends they might say I am an eeyore with a big sense of humor about it.
"eeyore"? hmmm? yes, i suppose in the "pre-extraction" stage you would qualify. certain that your fate was held in the balance by an infected tooth. as in, "Eeyore the old grey donkey stood by the side of the stream, and looked at himself in the water. Pathetic he said, that's what it is".
on the other hand, i would not cast myself in this mold for eternity if i were you. there are those occasions where you have "morphed" into the most perfect grendel's mother ready to do battle
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