“I love walking, I do”.
I don’t invoke the image of Helen from a long ago Big Brother lightly as she noted her fondness for blinking, however walking is as enjoyable and necessary to me as blinking is to the welsh star from Big Brother version 2
The romantic notion of walking out is always enticing — windswept vistas, hues of grey, blue, green, the opportunity for solitude and so on, but the practical realities and benefits of walking are immense.
Physically, the rhythmic mantra-like act of putting one foot in front of the other can enable you to “step out of yourself”, with the passing landscapes engaged at a pace not often experienced in our modern of world of haste and efficiency.
And it was in this zone of zen-iness that I found myself walking one late summer’s day high up on the North Wessex Downs — the baking heat making every step just that little bit harder than it should be….I struggled on and found myself cogitating on something that had been nagging at me for weeks when the trudge, noise and sensations I felt gave way to a “tetris-like” cascade of things falling into place with a solution to that problem forming from the chaos…it was quite a moment.
And it’s no surprise that thinkers from across the ages encourage walking to unlock creativity, thoughts, feelings, problems or quandaries — the quote in the subject title comes from ancient philosophy….”Solvitur Ambulando” meaning “It is Solved by Walking”.
Stepping out and Getting on.
