I Love It Here!Walking to Work |
Good for the heartWalking to work makes sense when you live about five blocks from your job. The church my family attends is on the way, so I could stop in there twice a day. That made the walk good for my heart in two senses of the word. Walking was better for my health. It was also more fun than driving. I'd get to hear the birds, see who's planted flowers, and stretch my legs. I also got to see people. The first year we lived here, I realized that in all the times I'd walked by children playing or talking, I'd only heard a handful of foul words. Many kids in the larger cities I have lived in had much more "adult," and limited, vocabularies. CourtesyThe adults are different, too. I've often said "hi" to someone, and gotten a friendly greeting in return. My wife explains that this, and the way people sometimes wave to us in the van, is due in part to her being related directly or indirectly to about half the people in town. It wasn't always easy to walk to work. For the first few years after moving into our current house, neighbors would see me walking and offer me a ride. If I like walking so much, why don't I do it more? An astute reader will notice that the first paragraphs on this page are in the past tense. For several years, I've been driving the van, or getting a ride from my wife, except for very short walks. I've got what has been euphemistically referred to as a handicap, and around 1999 I began exploring new horizons in restricted movement. Falling down stairs had more of an effect on me than I liked. Those walks to work were very nearly the first thing to go. The situation is improving, happily. Around the fall of 2001 I could walk to church. I was also enjoying the occasional walk on the new Lake Wobegon Trail, which comes within about a block of our house. Then winter came, with its attendant ice and snow, and some of that mobility slid away. Right now, I'm taking the matter of getting back to greater mobility one step at a time. |
I Love It Here! |
This Season | Walking to
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This page last updated: December 19, 2010