Nature Life

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Walking, walking. /

When I search online for the benefits of walking, I find many good reasons to take up this healthy habit.

I have been thinking about walking since spending a week at the beach in late December. Each day I woke, ate, walked, rested, ate, walked, ate, rested, and slept.

When I returned home, I asked, “Why is walking not a thing I just do, like eating and sleeping?”

So that is what I did. I’ve been walking on my lunch hour at work three to three and half miles and longer on the weekends. I do feel I am reaping the health benefits that are listed online, both physically and mentally. I am happier when I am at work, home, or doing the shopping. I

Another benefit that has occurred to me is the experience of seeing the world around me. The one right here that I miss when I am hurrying from one thing to the next, regardless of my mode of travel. The one right here that is alive as I, right under my nose: the creeks, the trees, the grasses, and the people with whom I share a “hello.”

I wonder if this is the thing that makes me happier: not only seeing and experiencing the world around me while walking, but also knowing that I am part if it, taking care of it, no matter where I am.

On the old bridge rail
receding snow snakes across, 
droplets fall below

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Wintertime grasses
seemingly slip by the creek
dredged in morning’s snow

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Creek crackled sun beam
sparkles under the overpass
a break in the clouds