The simple pleasures of walking

Americans find it difficult to engage in any activity for pure pleasure. We have to have a higher aim – a purpose – for every moment of time. For example, children take classes or join clubs to increase their self-esteem, build talent, or try out a potential career. Adults attend parties to make business contacts, garden to raise vegetables, and mow the lawn to meet neighborhood standards.

I'm here to tell you about one of my guilty pleasures. It doesn't cost a thing, takes very little time, and brings me lots of personal fulfillment. Best of all, you can indulge in it for sheer enjoyment. Will you increase your social standing? No. Do you have the potential to make money? Absolutely not. Should you reproach yourself for indulging? Perhaps.

It's walking – strolling, sashaying, traipsing, perambulating, ambling. There's something about walking that's different from jogging. When I'm jogging, I'm constantly challenging myself to go farther or faster, sweat more, and breath harder. But when I'm walking, I'm taking time to go outside and put one foot in front of another while I look around, breathe, blink, and feel the sun and the wind. When I walk, I'm submerging myself in life.

On walks, I make friends with myself. That little voice in my head asks, "How are you going to finish three major projects this week?" I answer, "Now, calm down. This is your time. No deadlines, no projects, no have-to-dos."

On walks, I confront myself, too. There's no avoiding my recent irrational response to the neighbor with straying trash or the petty argument I started with my husband. While I walk, I put into perspective what's important to me.

My favorite reason for walking? It's a time when the strangest things pop into my head. As I walk, I devise new recipes to test or a solution to the Middle East conflicts. Sometimes, I dream up brilliant inventions that would make me $1 million if only I had time to create them.

Solitary walks and walks with companions each have their own pleasures. On walks with companions, acquaintances become friends and friendships deepen. People I've known for years open up and reveal the struggle they went through to find the right career, the trials and tribulations of their children's adolescence, and their excitement over a gem of a movie or a nugget of self-discovery.

I first became intrigued with walks when I read "Pride and Prejudice." The intrepid Elizabeth Bennet walked three miles to visit her sister.

Then, still in my impressionable pubescence, I learned that the Romantic poets – William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley – frequently strolled for hours for creative inspiration.

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