Walkify
Walkify: to strut one’s stuff and step out into the world joyfully
Step to it!
Step lively!
Keep in step!
Get your steps in!
The Walking Song, by the Turtles, was the first 45 I ever owned. I didn’t buy it. I won it at a fishing pond kiosk at the Danish Bazaar at St. Ansgar’s Danish Lutheran Church in Montreal. I grew to love The Walking Song, even though it was the B side to She’d Rather Be With Me.
Walking walking walking.
I love walking. I made my closest and longest-lasting friendship with the girl who kept the same pace I did on the return trek home from school. There was another girl who may have wanted to join us, but she didn’t keep up and we really wanted to motor home. We never actually sped up and walked ahead when she was with us, but we worked on discreetly slipping out of the schoolyard, so she didn’t know when we were leaving.
Those speedy walks home weren’t because we were in a hurry to be done with each other for the day — we’d often get home and spend even more time together on the phone. We just loved walking fast. And talking to each other.
Years later, I fell in love with a walker. And after more than 30 years, we still keep pace with each other, even though he’s 10 inches taller than I. Maybe he slows down his stride to be with me – maybe I perk mine up to stay abreast of him. Regardless of who’s adjusting their speed, we just love to walk.
And now, our little canine being Finnigan joins us on our daily walks. We love to find paths where she can roam close to us off leash, and we can hold hands like we did before one us was holding onto a leash, and the other a poop bag until we could find the next garbage can.
In Walking in the World, Julia Cameron’s follow up to the seminal guide to creative recovery The Artist’s Way, she adds a new basic tool to the Morning Pages and Artist’s Dates prescribed therein. Weekly Walks are the next tool, and Cameron asks that for the duration of the 12-week course, readers take at least one 25-minute walk each week. She writes, “You will find that these walks focus your thinking and instigate your breakthroughs,” and she hopes “the habit of walking and the habit of talking to those you love as you walk will both be awakened by this course.”
Walking is wonderful. Since I began walking in Vancouver, I’ve learned to clock and monitor the development of what grows in the exotic gardens here. Exotic compared to the Montreal gardens I grew up with. Things stay green all winter. Roses bud in January. Periwinkle in March. Leaves sprout in February on the hydrangea. In March: camelias, cherry blossoms, daffodils. And every day, there’s something new emerging. When I’m out walking, I almost always spot a new plant I’ve never seen before.
Several years ago, I developed pain in my hip. I first felt it at work when I’d have to stand for long periods. Over time, the pain grew worse, and it became increasingly difficult to walk. Turns out I had osteoarthritis and I had to have my hip replaced. I had the surgery, and now I am bionic, a six-million-dollar woman (I wish!) with a titanium joint that looks like a Klingon weapon – more Mek’leth than Bat’leth.
The lead up to surgery was scary. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do what I used to do. During my recovery, I walked with a walker, and then with Nordic poles.
But miracles do happen. And now, I walk as fast as I ever did – completely pain free! I just don’t wear high heels anymore.
Yesterday, we set out on our afternoon walk a little later than usual. Vancouver is near the rainforest in the Pacific northwest, its coastal atmosphere nestled in between mountains on three sides. Weather reports are crapshoots. It rains a lot. And then it stops. We’re fortunate that most of the time, we can spot a dry spell and when we do — we just give each other that knowing look – it’s time to walk now!
Finnigan (when she was a puppy): photo by and raincoat from Auntie Sharon
But the other day we missed. We dressed Finnigan in her pink raincoat and headed out. It started to hail. She was not happy. We didn’t love it either. But before we arrived back home, the sun had come out again and the smiles were back on our faces.
We love to walk.