If there’s one advantage to this insane global pandemic, it’s that more people are spending time outside. Not just outside their home, because there are a lot of places beyond the walls of our homes that we are not supposed to go, but outdoors. In nature. Breathing fresh air. And though I like to pride myself on being an outdoors enthusiast, I have also found myself breathing even more delicious fresh air these days than I typically do.
Like many other people, I’ve been going for walks as much as I can during this time. Simple, easy, no-fuss walks. I am grateful I have the time to do so. For years, the benefits of walking eluded me because I always felt like I needed to be doing “real” exercise like lifting weights, running sprints, or climbing up a mountain. I’m competitive and have always played contact sports, so for a long time walking seemed like a pretty lame way to move my body. I was so wrong.
Walking is one of the slowest ways we can travel, and by traveling slowly we notice more. I have found this to be true during these beautiful springtime days in Roanoke. The cherry blossom trees are exploding with blooms, and on a particularly windy day I had to stop, stand still, and soak in the scene as the wind tore the petals off the trees and blew them across the street, whirling and streaking like snow in a blizzard. I stooped low at the edge of the curb to inspect puddles littered with this delicate confetti, searching for patterns and identifying varying shades of pink. I looked closely at the branches and how they hung low over cars and nestled alongside telephone poles, all against the backdrop of a hospital made of glass and steel and concrete. I thought about that contrast between the softness of the pink flowers and the hardness of our man-made machines.
By walking outside and becoming closer to nature, I think we can rediscover some softness within ourselves. We are reminded that we do not come from the glass or the steel or the concrete. We are not machines. We do not have hard edges. We are not indestructible. We belong much more to the trees and their tangled roots, the ever-changing clouds, the howling wind, the rich earth.
I hope you are safe. I hope you are healthy. I hope you get to spend time outdoors.