I meant to say here that rolling is also what I mean by walking. Or however one makes way. When writing this I was thinking of my neighbor, for example, who often makes the same walking loop I do on the paved path by the water, and does it with a wheelchair. His presence is the kind of feeling of this piece
OMNG - ask any of our kids and they will tell you I have told them since little - WALK - angels whisper to you when you walk.. it is the one time you talk to the universe in every way - through your step - breath - body language - even out loud sometimes! it is truly one of the simplest smallest yet enormous gifts we can ever gift ourselves!!!
“None of your knowledge, your reading, your connections will be of any use here: two legs suffice, and big eyes to see with. Walk alone, across mountains or through forests. You are nobody to the hills or the thick boughs heavy with greenery. You are no longer a role, or a status, not even an individual, but a body, a body that feels sharp stones on the paths, the caress of long grass and the freshness of the wind. When you walk, the world has neither present nor future: nothing but the cycle of mornings and evenings. Always the same thing to do all day: walk. But the walker who marvels while walking (the blue of the rocks in a July evening light, the silvery green of olive leaves at noon, the violet morning hills) has no past, no plans, no experience. He has within him the eternal child. While walking I am but a simple gaze.”
I meant to say here that rolling is also what I mean by walking. Or however one makes way. When writing this I was thinking of my neighbor, for example, who often makes the same walking loop I do on the paved path by the water, and does it with a wheelchair. His presence is the kind of feeling of this piece
OMNG - ask any of our kids and they will tell you I have told them since little - WALK - angels whisper to you when you walk.. it is the one time you talk to the universe in every way - through your step - breath - body language - even out loud sometimes! it is truly one of the simplest smallest yet enormous gifts we can ever gift ourselves!!!
That is such a beautiful statement! I love that you tell your kids that. Thanks for sharing it here too.
Frederic Gros's book, A Philosophy of Walking, is finely observed. There's a scan of it freely borrowable at archive.org.
Oh! What a wonderful resource. Thank you for sharing this.
“None of your knowledge, your reading, your connections will be of any use here: two legs suffice, and big eyes to see with. Walk alone, across mountains or through forests. You are nobody to the hills or the thick boughs heavy with greenery. You are no longer a role, or a status, not even an individual, but a body, a body that feels sharp stones on the paths, the caress of long grass and the freshness of the wind. When you walk, the world has neither present nor future: nothing but the cycle of mornings and evenings. Always the same thing to do all day: walk. But the walker who marvels while walking (the blue of the rocks in a July evening light, the silvery green of olive leaves at noon, the violet morning hills) has no past, no plans, no experience. He has within him the eternal child. While walking I am but a simple gaze.”
― Frédéric Gros, A Philosophy of Walking
"the real philosophy"