On Walking

When I have the time, I love walking places. Today I was walking through Kampala, from a restaurant back to my hotel, a walk of about one hour. And despite the close traffic, rugged footpaths, and insistent boda-boda drivers, it felt extremely peaceful.

I asked myself why.

While walking I have long periods during which I know exactly where I am, exactly where I'm going, and exactly how I'll get there. This, I realized, is rare in my life. And perhaps in modern lives generally.

Our physical and mental lives are dominated by quickness - cars, emails, cell phones, airplanes. We move so fast that we lose sense of presentness, and we reach destinations so quickly that we struggle for direction, and the whole game is evolving so rapidly that we don't always know how to get where we want to go.

But walking, I have it all.

Today as I chose my footfalls and shifted my laptop bag from one shoulder to another, I thought about how wonderful it would be to make my whole life like a walk - to feel present in my place, to be sure of my direction, and to be confident in my methods.

I think I'll walk that way.