One of my favorite inspirational sayings is: “You don’t have to go fast. You just have to go.”
I recently read that poet William Wordsworth composed most of his poems while walking through meadows, moors, and mountains. He rambled in every kind of weather and all over Europe. In fact, a friend calculated that he had walked 180,000 miles in his life. Even in his 60s he was able to tour 20 miles a day. (My hero.)
Walking and writing go together in my life. I take a morning walk, generally a bit more than an hour, every day. These words sum up my feelings about walking and its influence on my life:
“I walk chiefly to visit natural objects, but I sometimes go on foot to visit myself. It often happens when I am on an outward-bound excursion, that I also discover a good deal of my own thought. He is a poor reporter, indeed, who does not note his thought as well as his sight. The profit of a walk depends on your waiting for the golden opportunity — on your getting an inspired hint before setting out …
These members [legs] when in motion, are so stimulating to thought and mind, they almost deserve to be called the reflective organs. As in the night an iron-shod horse stumbling along a stony road kicks out sparks, so let a man take to his legs and soon his brain will begin to grow luminous and sparkle.” –Alfred Barron, Foot Notes, Or, Walking as a Fine Art, 1875.