Walking Around Town

I used to do quite a bit of walking around town, as well as riding and driving. Who knows how many miles, we didn't go in for the pedometers back then, and today's Fitbit and Jawbone Up had not been invented. Some of us had odometers on our bicycles and in our cars but it was rare that we looked at them to see how far we had gone around town.



At first walking was difficult and even a block or two seemed like a big effort when you were young. Then the strength of youth grows inside of you as well as the impatience and the walk isn't such an effort as it is a use of time.



It wasn't until I getting ready to go off to college and we were readying our home for sale so my parents could move back into Manhattan that I slowed my gait down enough to truly look around at my surroundings and circumstances. Though by this time it was too late to savor the safety and tranquility of our upper Ridgewood neighborhood. It all went away too fast, which was ironic as earlier in my life I couldn't cover the ground fast enough.

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance,
plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity,
good speech, good silence and nothing too much." 
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Now on those rare occasions when I stroll about town I search my memory banks for why I was in such a hurry. Then it usually comes back to me in a saying I made up:

You can go home again, but only for as long as it takes you to remember why you left in the first place.

.