Thursday, September 18, 2008

walking


My friend, John, and I just completed a 45 minute brisk walk along the Mokelumne River, which winds its way through Amador County. I can access a walking road about one mile from our church. It always amazes me that no one is ever walking along its beautiful paths...and then I remember I only walked there a couple of times this summer myself.

Last night I returned home after a long twelve hour day and following dinner, I took an hour walk through the meandering hills of my beautiful neighborhood.. I did not encounter one other person walking and enjoying the cool evening air of a late summer evening.

I love my walks, whether with a friend like John who listens to me mumble and grumble about politics, movies we have seen and wish we hadn't and the occasional adventures of our children.

I love my walks by myself, as well, sometimes with music blaring in my ears to drown out my thoughts, and other times, quietly mulling over issues that in the frenetic pace of a much too busy life often get ignored.

Francis Chan suggests that "on the average day we live caught up in ourselves. On the average day we don't consider God very much. On the average day we forget that our life is a vapor."

A walk helps me separate the mundane and trivial from the things that really matter. Sometimes politics, movies and adventurous stories of our children are never rehearsed in an arena where they can be processed and evaluated with a caring friend. They are simply swallowed up by time and space and subconsciously comparmentalized as worth rememebering or not.

A wlak helps me focus on things I might otherwise skip over, and when alone I am forced to listen to my own breath (if I leave the MP3 player behind),a nd I am reminded then that life is but a vapor.

Here today, gone tomorrow.

I think I'll take another walk.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Will you take me me with you? :-)
My long commute times afford me the same experience, but I would much rather be on a nice walk!

debby said...

Hi Dale, Today was a great day at church. Thank you.

I like walking too, but with the heat and dust up here, I had taken practically the whole summer off, and when I was in a bit of a funk last week, my good friend asked me if I had been walking lately. And I realized how much I have missed it. I really like working on memorizing scripture while I walk. Somehow, it is easier to memorize then than any other time.