Kauai Path Kaua'i Coastal Path

Reflections from an avid walker…

I could always say that I liked walking.  It made me feel good.  It helped me get away from the everyday distractions.  With most of the everyday distractions gone, my mind was FREEed to think with a different set of priorities.  If I was able to really break away, i.e., go where no man [or at least almost no man] had gone before, I could contemplate life from a higher plane.  Of course, a woman has already been there.  Seeing different plants and flowers is a fantastic layer of icing on a cakewalk.  Life is experienced differently but it is also better.
 
My first big walk that I know of was when I was about two years old.  My mother became very upset when she could not find her oldest child.  By that time in life she was holding my younger brother in her arms.  As most any good mother would have done, she imaged the worst.  She soon alerted the neighbors.  All the usual corners were checked.  Then the search moved beyond the usual places.  That scared my mother even more.
 
Not to be overly dramatic or anticlimactical, I was very happy with my new found brook and the many new things to see.  It was cool; the front yard was large but too hot.  The bubble soon burst.  Mom was mad, but she was trying to let me know how much she loved me, so she hugged me and told me sternly, not to ever go away from the house again [except when I told her where I was going].
 
That is still good advice, tell someone where you are going and when you will be back.  The great joy of walking can be a dangerous occupation.  All that joy and spur-of-the-moment choices can lead to unexpected results.  You plan to be back in an hour, but you find such a great place that you want to linger for a while.  For the same reasons, you decide to find a different way back.  Not too many changes, and then the sun goes down.  Now it is almost dark and you have never been on this path before.
 
Life can be like a walk into unknown areas.  Joy, excitement, fear, a test of skills, and a freedom to suffer the immediate consequences of our thoughts; all of this can be the fruit of adventurous walking.  In that way, a walk is like life.  Well, a walk is a way to live.  Exploring beyond everyday boundaries, we live an ever expanding life.
 
If you enjoy the humdrum, enjoy.  Even a humdrum life is best enjoyed when lived with some variety.  You choose when to walk a familiar path, and when to walk into the unknown.  Walking is one way to express life.  Walking is a great time to contemplate the changes you want to make in your life.  Use your life [or lose it].  Walking is a way to bring some basic joy into the day-to-day life of most anybody.
 
A.E. Hill