Before it gets hot, I’m up and walking. About three miles a day. Walking meditation is the quiet start to my day. After I get home, the phone can ring and the calls can start, but without that time of meditation and quiet contemplation, my day never settles in right.
Walking meditation can take many forms, mine is simply walking briskly while being aware of the sounds and sights that nature offers. “Nature” covers a broad experience here–I live in a city, so there is traffic, trees, kids on their way to school, bikes, dogs, crossing guards, trash and recycling pick-ups. Often I’m walking before it gets too light or too noisy, but it doesn’t really matter. A good walking meditation is a great way to start the day.
Here is a wood picket fence with a new coat of paint. It’s had a tough summer, though.
White picket fence, baked in the heat.
One of my joys is to see things closely, to enjoy them exactly as they are in the exact slant of light as they appear. And at different times of year, there is a different light and each object has different meanings.
This picket fence needed paint two weeks ago. It had been through a number of years of dust storms, scorching sun and drought. It was peeling and grey.
Now it’s had a coat of paint, but not all the pickets soaked up the paint in the same way. In this slant of light, the curved slats look important, standing out from the many others that are straight. Sort of like people.
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Here is a lampost, the kind that our neighborhood uses. In this light, I realized that the texture wasn’t aluminum, nor was it bright metal.
Tall light posts in our neighborhood.
In fact, it seems to be wrapped in something and then painted over. It’s hard and plastic sounding when tapped with a fingernail. It could be fiberglass,
Is this fiberglass wrapping on our light posts?
but all I know is that the criss-cross is fascinating and makes great patterns as the sun slants against it.
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Last week, I noticed that Palo Verde trees were putting out new leaves. These leaves are tiny and won’t get much bigger, but when they fall off, it comes off with the entire stem, and looks like pine straw. It’s tough, and makes horrible mulch.
New leaves on the palo verde
Walking meditation is a never-ending surprise of sounds and views. You can walk the same route every day and never see or experience the same walk twice.
It’s a soothing and calming experience; walking day to day makes you aware of the passage of time and the changes in your life as well as in the seasons. Often, people are surprised at the change of months or the approaching holiday. Walking meditation puts you in perfect synchronization with the world you walk through.
–—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also teaches people who can’t draw how to keep an art journal.
