Take a Walk!

The great nineteenth-century English author Charles Dickens had a daily schedule. He was always in his study by eight o’clock where he wrote until noon. At this point his wife brought him his lunch, which he ate at his desk. 

He returned to work until two o’clock, at which time he left home and took a thirteen-mile walk through the English countryside. In the evening he spent half an hour with his children—eventually numbering ten – prior to retiring for the evening.

          It’s the thirteen-mile walk we may find particularly noteworthy. Imagine taking a thirteen-mile walk each day. On his walks, Dickens often strolled through little towns and villages, taking in the details of the houses and people. Because he had a great memory for details, he could retain much of what he saw and would later use it in the novel he was writing.

          Walking is not just physical exercise or a way to get from one place to another. Walking can also nourish your happiness in unique ways if you walk not just with your legs, but with your mind, heart, and soul. Walking and praying go together well, too. The key is walk with your sense open and your intellect attuned to what you observe as you walk.

          A young man walked each evening one mile away from his home and one mile back again. He looked at the houses he passed, at the trees, the occasional airplane overhead, and the changes in the seasons as they shows themselves in nature around him. 

The young man walked day in, day out, for years, at the end of each day. Then one spring evening as he returned from his walk he paused on the corner across from the house where he lived with his wife and young children. He looked at the house, struck by a completely new realization.

          It suddenly hit the young man that his walk gave him a unique point of view on his life. Ordinarily when he left his house he was in his car, driving, and departures and arrivals happened expeditiously, without much thought. 

Walking, however, he paused upon his return, struck by the knowledge that in that house was everything he held most dear, his wife and children. There they were, the children asleep, his wife sitting quietly in the living room strumming her guitar, humming some old tune, tired after a full day. The young man murmured a thank you to no one in particular and to the wide and starry universe and the Creator of it all.

          A walk can be a deeply spiritual exercise, deeply nourishing to your happiness if you want it to be. The key is to walk but not think about the walking. Be in touch, instead, with your deeper self as you walk. Don’t strain, don’t make a mighty effort. Simply relax and let it be so.

          A walk of this kind nourishes your happiness. Imagine that.