Tuesday, November 3, 2015

The Art of Walking

"Memory Found"  collage, 8"x8", by Donna Watson   SOLD

WANDERLUST by Rebecca Solnit

Walking is embodied presence in motion, presence at once with ourselves and with the world, inner and outer -- an active presence of body and mind...  from Brain Pickings by Maria Popova.
Rebecca Solnit speaks to this beautifully:
     "Walking, ideally is a state in which the mind, the body, and the world are aligned, as though they were three characters finally in conversation together, three notes suddenly making a chord.  Walking allows us to be in our bodies and in the world without being made busy by them.  It leaves us free to think without being wholly lost in our thoughts."  Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust

This is a path near my home... it leads to the beach below my home on the cliff.
photo by Donna Watson

The rhythm of walking generates a kind of rhythm of thinking, and the passage through a landscape echoes or stimulates the passage through a series of thoughts.  Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

This is a continuation of the path near my home.  Photo by Donna Watson

WALKING by Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau believed that 'sauntering" with no real destination in mind, was the best way to walk.
He wrote that the idea of sauntering should be approached with a mindset of presence rather than productivity.   "What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?"  Thoreau

Here we are taking a walk with our 6 month old puppy, Kirin.

"Most of the time walking is merely practical, the unconsidered locomotive means between two sites.  To make walking into an investigation, a ritual, a meditation, is a special subset of walking....  Here this history begins to become part of the history of the imagination and the culture, of what kind of pleasure, freedom, and meaning are pursued at different times by different kinds of walks and walkers."  Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust

One of the paths over water, in a temple in Kyoto Japan
photo by Donna Watson

A street for walking through an older traditional part of Kyoto
photo by Donna Watson

"Walking itself is the intentional act closest to the unwilled rhythms of the body, to breathing and the beating of the heart.  It strikes a delicate balance between working and idling, being and doing.  It is a bodily labor that produces nothing but thoughts, experiences, arrivals."  Rebecca Solnit

Path by Maria Popova

Check out Brain Pickings by Maria Popova.  She publishes a weekly synopsis of books... musings... on wide ranging topics including love, grace, human spirit, art, literature, society, cultures, creativity, and on and on... she fills her musings with plenty of links and quotes...  she writes with authority as she links one book to another book, or idea or thought.  You can sign up to receive her newsletter via email.... or at Flipboard...  which I also highly recommend.   www.brainpickings.org

21 comments:

Nancy said...

Thank you for this post, for bringing all this information together. I seem to have missed this Brain Pickings, so I was very glad to see your post this morning. I too am a walker and a lover of books focusing on walking. Bliss.

ELFI said...

un joli chemin pour arriver au magnifique collage!

Tammie Lee said...

lovely meditation of your photos and thoughts on walking. thank you. i do love to walk.

Paris Rendez-vous and Beyond said...

A gorgeous saunter....as usual.

Back to my collage and water colours now....a little walk across the paper.

Ciao

R

Caterina Giglio said...

I am a big Brain Pickings fan, and often reblog her posts on FB. this is a great post, walking is something I do daily, but thanks for the reminder from Thoreau, to saunter, I shall try it more often...

sukipoet said...

Wonderful post Donna. With check out brain pickings. and the Wanderlust book. love that path over water. I have always cherished walking. I try to walk every day. I feel it is a way to heal oneself. and many other things too. Be well, Suki

Laura said...

Thank you for your comforting comments Donna, as I was heading into my first traveling adventure in the art workshop arena...I found the walking besides morning journal writing centering. The rhythm of my pace walks me back to who I am when so many outside influence can sidetrack and sideswipe me off. Being sensitive to life as most of us creative types are the counter balance of walking and for me being the woods is like walking in prayer. Beautiful post.

Barry said...

Hi D - to me walking is a way of quietly and mindfully being in the world and almost meditating - being refreshed by the wonders of nature. Thanks for the post. Go well. B

Emma said...

Lovely post - I agree with Thoreau's point about sauntering but sometimes it's in the woods we find clarity to understand things outside the woods. Ive just written about 'walking' on the Isle of Mull, peaceful.

Rebeca Trevino said...

lovely post Donna.
walking keeps me sane . . .

Hot guys blog said...

Love walking!!

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The rhythm of walking generates a kind of rhythm of thinking, and the passage through a landscape echoes or stimulates the passage through a series of thoughts. Maria Popova, Brain Pickings.
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