TheBanyanTree: walking home

[Julie Anna Teague]

It's a little over an hour's walk from my office to home if I go at a
very fast clip.  Now that the man-cub has his driver's license, he has
been dropping me off at work on Tuesdays and taking the car to school
so that he can get to his after school job at the hardware store.  He
can never quite believe that I'm going to walk home.  I might as well
tell him I'm walking to the next state.  He thinks I'm crazy when I
take off out the door and walk to the grocery--two miles away and an
inconceivable distance to him--and back.  He looks at me as if I'm nuts
when I ask him to take a walk with me and he asks where and I tell him,
"To the mall, it's only a 45 minute walk."  That's a life sentence at his age.

I could take a bus halfway home on Tuesdays.  I could take a cab the
whole way.  I could get a ride from a co-worker if I really wanted to,
but I love to walk, especially after being in my cave-like office the
whole day.  Traffic is heavy at that time of the day, but the sky often
makes up for it.  Last night I watched starving-artist-perfect clouds
go from blue to pink to orange to purple as I walked.  The trees and the air
make up for it.  I feel my cheeks burn and then warm and then blush red.
My fingers and nose are a good kind of warm-cold.  I focus on making my
legs fluid, my breathing deep and regular.  And I walk and walk and
walk.

I never get bored.  Maybe that's what some people don't get about
walking--that in the right frame of mine, it's never boring, especially
when covering a lot of distance.  At that speed, there is so much more to
take in.  There is more opportunity for funny or strange or uplifting things
to happen.  There is more time for coincidence.  Yesterday, I was
crossing a busy street when someone honked at me.  I ignored the honk
and just kept walking, because, honestly, I think it's just plain rude.
But then I heard someone yell, "Julie!" and turned, and driving the
honking car was a good friend of mine whom I haven't seen for more than
five years since he moved away.  I was so happy at that moment to have
been walking.  And even if some amazing coincidence fails to happen, or
if the skies are gray, and nothing is looking special, I can just slip
into my own head.  And walk and think and walk, and by the time I get
home I feel calm and hungry and all kinds of good feelings.

Julie

















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