Walking

The human body is neat. I like to walk.

I read this description of walking the other day. Now I want to go hiking.

"Backpacking with my family in Teton wilderness, I am recurrently struck by the question of footing. With each step, the food has to come down somewhere. Climbing or descending over boulder fields, steep inclines, on and off trails, our feet make split-second decisions for us about where and how to come down, what angle, how much pressure, heel or toe, rotated or straight. The kids don't ever ask: 'Daddy, where do I put my feet? Should I step on this rock or that one?' They just do it, and I've noticed that they find a way --they choose where to put their feet at each step, and it's not simply where I put mine.

What this says to me is that our feet find their own way. Watching my own, I am amazed at how many different places and ways I might put my foot down with each step, and how out of this unfolding momentary potential, the foot ultimately commits to one way, executes with full weight on it (or less if it's a hazardous situation), and then lets go as the next foot makes its choice and I move forward. All this occurs virtually without thinking, except at the occasional tricky spots where thought and experience do come into play and I might have to give my youngest child, Serena, a hand. But that is the exception, not the rule. Ordinarily we are not looking at our feet and thinking about each step. We are looking out, ahead on the trail, and our brain, taking it all in, makes split-second decisions for us that put the food down in a way that conforms to the needs of the terrain underfoot in that moment.

This doesn't mean that there is no wrong way to step. You do have to be careful and sense your footing. It's just that the eyes and the brain are very good at rapid assessment of terrain and giving detailed directions to torso, limbs, and feet, so that the whole process of taking a step on rough ground is one of exquisite balance in motion, even with the complication of boots and heavy packs. There is built-in mindfulness here. Rough terrain brings it out in us. And if we do a trail ten times, we'll each solve the problem of each footstep differently each time. Covering ground on foot always unfolds out of the uniqueness of the present moment."

-from Jon Kabat-Zinn's Wherever You Go There You Are (127-128)

Photo of the view from El Chorro, an area near Antequera where Viola (my co-auxiliar in Casariche) and I went for a hike about 3 days after I typed up this post

For more info about El Chorro:
http://www.andalucia.com/antequera/chorro/home.htm