Monday's Poetry: "A Walk"

by Pa Rock

Poetry Appreciator

Several months ago one of my doctors suggested that perhaps I should fit more exercise into my already busy schedule.  I took his advice to heart and purchased a FitBit knockoff and started keeping track of the amount of steps that I take daily. I record those stats on the same sheets where I keep my daily weight and the results of each day’s three blood sugar checks.   And then when I go visit that same young whippersnapper doctor, I drop more data on him that a horse could digest.

I try to do 10,000 steps or more a day, and my wrist pedometer rewards me with a buzzy vibration and a flashing graphic when I hit that daily goal.   And, as B.F. Skinner proved with his rats, I get stoked by those rewards and keep striving onward to see that they are repeated each day.

Just kicking around the house produces three to four thousand steps a day, so to hit my goal of 10,000, I have to get creative and do extra activities.  To that end, I have fashioned a walking schedule that helps.

I get up each morning at 4:00 a.m. and let Rosie outside to do her business.  While Rosie takes care of her needs, I get on the computer and catch up on email and hit a few of my favorite news sites.  Then, about 4:30 I go outside to feed the cats and open up the chicken coop.  While I am outside – if it is not raining – I also get in my first serious walking of the day – up and down the driveway and along the edge of the road.  Walking along the road in front of my house anytime of the day is not too bright, but most of my unemployed and drug-impaired neighbors are still asleep at that hour, and the road is surprisingly quiet.   If someone does come roaring along, I can usually hear them and see their headlights from about half-a-mile away.

Anyway, by the time I get back in bed around 5:30 or so for a couple of more hours of sleep, I already have 2,000 or more steps completed - or 20% of my daily goal.  

In the early afternoon I head out to a local park where I add around 2,500 more steps walking a nature trail.  It’s a quiet time in a usually serene setting, and I look forward to that part of my day.

Late afternoons, if my numbers are lagging, I take a long walk around the perimeter of the farm.  I use that time to also pick up sticks, brush, and rocks – things that would interfere with mowing.  Then there are the evening “chores” – feeding the cats again and locking the chickens up for the night.  If I am at 9,500 or more when I finally come to the house for good, I know that I will reach my goal before bedtime.  (And if I am short of that, I go outside and walk some more!)

I’m not sure that I am any healthier for all of that effort, but I do find that walking brightens my outlook on things.

Today’s poetry selection by early 20^th century German lyric poet Rainer Maria Rilke speaks of the positive impact that walking and absorbing the sights can have on us. We changed by all that we see and experience.

A Walk

By Rainer Maria Rilke

My eyes already touch the sunny hill, 

going far beyond the road I have begun.

So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;

it has an inner light, ever from a distance – 

and changes us, even if we do not reach it,

into something else, which, hardly sensing it,

we already are;  a gesture waves us on

answering our own wave . . .

but what we feel is the wind in our faces.

And when I am walking, seriously walking, something waves me on and my day is calmed by the wind in my face!