Walk, just like that

Once I met a British medical doctor at a party held to celebrate his promotion. He had come to the venue in his battered Morris whereas his juniors sailed into the parking lot in their fancy, shiny new cars. I asked the good doctor why he still used that old car and he said, ‘The car works fine for me, I need it just to go from Point A to Point B, and back, nothing more.’

We both smiled. Cars are an extension of our legs, to put it very simplistically. Since we travel greater distances than our legs can handle, we use mechanised transport. Period. The same cannot be said of walking.

We walk not just to go from Point A to B and back. We walk also to exercise. And to meditate, as suggested by Buddhist Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh. When walking becomes a means to an end, as in reaching a destination or carrying out a chore, it can get tedious. But if walking is meditation, or you walk simply because you wish to do that, without an agenda, it becomes pleasurable.

‘Allow yourself to enjoy every step you take,’ suggests the monk. Which is why when you stroll rather than walk briskly, or you wander rather than jog with the goal of losing calories, the very act of walking makes you more aware of your surroundings, of the earth your feet caress and the sky above you. You notice the trees and shrubs, the bugs on the ground, and butterflies flitting past. You make time to smell the roses, and not rush past them.