If I could do anything else for a living, I would walk. I see the world more clearly when I am walking. My thoughts are much better, I am more creative, and more peaceful. I notice the large things and the small ones. I see the past more clearly and the future more hopefully.
I love walking in places where I am familiar. I get to see new things that I had not noticed before. I notice the details. At night, I see how the light shines in the darkness, and see the same things differently than I do in the day. I wonder about the people in the homes, and pray for the families on the street.
I love walking in new places. I like seeing something I’ve never seen before, for getting a new view of the world, for discovering something that may be old for others, but new for me.
I love discovering old paths, walking them and thinking about who has walked them before.
And I love walking, or making, new paths. To go where others may have looked, but not walked.
When I was 8 I would walk all over Inman. I would explore the well-known streets, go down the little side alleys, discover shortcuts through hedges. When I first moved to Florence, I walked all over town. For a while I was known to folks as the “walking preacher.” And I love James Taylor’s song “Walking Man.”
One of my fantasies is walking across South Carolina, starting at the state line at Tryon NC/Landrum SC, following US 176 as far as I could (Goose Creek r NOrth Charleston) then walking on out to Folly Beach. Maybe writing a story about it- about people and towns and history. Recollect times in my own life at various places along the path.
My grandfather, who loved to walk, once said that people (this was in the 1950s) saw the world through automobile windows. We don’t even see it that way anymore. We see it through electronic screens. Computers, phones, tablets, tvs.
Sometimes, most times, I think I could walk forever.
And so the question comes to my mind, if I love walking so much, why don’t I do it more? Or at all? I seem to have stopped. And that is to my pain and detriment.
Jesus called his followers to walk with him. I hope I don’t stop that walk.
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Michael Henderson 