Writing the old ways

"Stories, like paths, relate in two senses: they recount and they connect...As the pen rises from the page between words, so the walker's feet rise and fall between paces...so writing and wayfaring are continuous activities..." p. 105

Just finished reading this book in which the author walks and sails through parts of Britain, Spain and Palestine, but mostly Britain, following old historical path ways. There are a lot of books around that are about walking but they are not really about walking. They are about wandering and wondering and writing and wisdom.

I do find walking to be very meditative, especially if I am walking alone. Thoughts, ideas, lines of prose and poetry and even solutions to problems can come while walking. The steady physical rhythm of walking seems to calm the thinking processes as the mind falls into the rhythm of the walking, and begins subconsciously to process thoughts into coherence. Walking is the way humans are designed to move through the world. It seems to be a very natural way of being.