39 Comments
Jan 5, 2022Liked by Isaac Fitzgerald

Sounds wonderful! My first walk this year was with my hubby, early on New Year's Day, before the rest of the town had woken. It was totally quiet, not even a bird. The only noise was our boots squeaking on the snow as we walked the dirt roads around the lakes. We stopped at one lake, where we could see through the trees that a skating rink had been shoveled and we walked down to check it out. But it wasn't just one skating rink! There was a hockey rink, a curling rink and a long winding path around everything for normal skating. But the best part? The creators of the rinks had also built a tribe of snowmen, young and old, big and small, all gathered around a fake fire (with real branches), almost as if they were cheering on the skaters (or waiting to melt). It was so unusual that we just stood there, turning around to take it all in. And then one single bird started to sing. It broke the spell and we walked on, hand in hand, still not seeing another soul. It was the perfect beginning to the new year.

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Jan 5, 2022Liked by Isaac Fitzgerald

I don't know how to answer this wonderful question. I stopped taking my usual morning walk because our new dog who we adopted from a rescue came with issues that have unfolded during the walks I was trying to take with her just after dawn each morning. I have been learning to see the world through her eyes -- eyes that have never seen a corner with traffic in so many directions, so many dogs on leashes -- BIG dogs, so many unfamiliar sights and smells, all potentially threatening. So we started the New Year with the same walk around the same block -- we make as many circuits as we can so she can familiarize herself with her new home.

I treat the walks now as "showing Frida the world." I'm learning all over again that walking familiar ground over and over can reveal things about where I live that I stopped noticing -- how strange the conversation of parrots can be as they flit and roost and chase the crows, the fragrance of the remaining blooms of the mock orange vine in the alley that lifts me every time we pass. I see my neighbors doing something as ordinary as coming out to get their newspapers in the morning and watch how my dog freezes, barks, watches anxiously -- unsure if this is something she needs to do something about. I imagine what it is like to see the world as something so big and so frightening and find a little more room for compassion in my heart not only for her but for myself, and for others I know who are facing a big uncertain world.

I am looking forward to stretching my legs a bit more very soon. I may have to leave her at home when I do. That's okay. When she's ready, she'll be fearless.

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My first walk of the year was a brutal quarter mile mirror, reflecting a broken, aging, yet determined body. I winced with each step, using my right arm to hold my left way up over my head as to not further aggravate the raging pinched nerve in my neck. I spent two weeks spanning Christmas, my 39th birthday, and a ungodly long school break flat on my back, unable to move my head with nerve pain radiating from my cervical spine through my shoulder and into my arm.

In the four months leading up to this, I'd been going hard....really hard...on the pottery wheel trying to finish presents for my family. Big masses of clay threw me around, and around, and around as I tried to center and cone gigantic bowls. On Dec 16th my body said "Nope. Go fuck yourself."

The Doctors say I need surgery, no more wild skiing, no lap swimming, and definitely no pottery wheel for six months. Punishment for my masochistic tendency to overdo it. "It" being everything I do. I can't seem to put in 75% effort, reserving enough energy for everything else. I get obsessed with whatever it is I'm doing and put in 200%. I skip all the meals, I neglect everything, until "it" breaks me. Including walking. This time last year I'd walked so many miles around my neighborhood I was nursing a foot injury.

This neck thing is a big ol' bummer, but it's also the shot across the bow that perhaps I need as I hobble towards 40. Maybe it's my body screaming at me to reel it in, to start asking for help, and to finally learn what "just enough" effort looks like.

When we practice something every day, like walking, it becomes a barometer of how we're doing mentally and physically. That painful quarter mile showed me not only how I was doing, but also who I can no longer be.

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Jan 6, 2022Liked by Isaac Fitzgerald

It's very very cold in Chicago right now, so I haven't had any serious outdoor walks yet. But in light of omicron we're looking at meeting up with friends at a nearby arboretum as soon as is feasible with a few good layers.

I really miss my dog, but if we're being honest he wasn't really going for walks in his last six months anyway. Once the grief has evolved a bit I'm hoping the universe will bring us another good boy or girl to drag me out for walks.

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Jan 5, 2022Liked by Isaac Fitzgerald

What a magical moment! I haven’t gone for my first walk of the new year yet, but I’m hoping to do so this weekend. I’m visiting my family in CT (I’m in ME) for the first time since my dad had two emergency spinal surgeries (and in the process got diagnosed with 3 different cancers). He was in the hospital for 7 weeks; now he’s finally home and doing chemo and radiation alongside his PT - taking things one day at a time and doing really well. He’s been pushing himself, he’s determined to be able to walk again this year despite the neuropathy and nerve damage making it quite the challenge. I’m hoping to go on a few childhood nature walks with my sister and mom while I visit, but really I’m even more excited to take a few steps alongside my dad! Happy wamfling everyone!

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Jan 5, 2022Liked by Isaac Fitzgerald

That sounds like such a fun walk with Zorra! My first walk of 2022 was on Jan 2 in Northwest DC to a woodsy trail (Melvin Hazen West in Cleveland Park) leading to Rock Creek Park. The weather was warm and I worked with fellow volunteers to pull out invasive English Ivy along the trail. The next day, the weather dropped 30 degrees and DC got 10 inches of snow. I walked in the early

morning along the woodsy trail in my neighborhood (Glover Archbold, near American University), reveling in the hushed sounds of my footfalls, the thick white blanket over the trees, enjoying the bunny and deer footprints nearby. I visited some of my favorite trees (lots of oaks and tulip poplars) and listened to the tiny ephemeral waterfalls that appear in the creekbed when there's enough precipitation.

Isaac, do you know about forest bathing? Might be of interest for when you go to the woods.

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Jan 5, 2022Liked by Isaac Fitzgerald

Walking my hound Beatrix K. to Lake Erie. Dreary, and no color, foggy, with an off-shore winding thank goodness stinky fish were everywhere! While B rolled around in rotted fish, I scanned the vague horizon, often not able to distinguish between sea and ski. And I thought about that,

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Jan 5, 2022·edited Jan 5, 2022Liked by Isaac Fitzgerald

I took Suzan for a long walk today, we’re trying our best to leave the house when Sam has to teach over Zoom. The return to online classes means the return of rationed WiFi and apartment space. Suzan is still very new, recently released from his unborn hibernation, just 4 months into “all of this,” so every walk is a huge moment. Today we decided to hit Bushrod Park (a first for us) to indulge in a little off leash time (another first) and some rare Bay Area winter sunshine. The park, to my delight, was empty. I know we should socializing Suzan a lot and we do but sometimes socializing a puppy just amounts to strangers telling you things you already know about your dog. “He’s gonna be big!” For sure, yeah. “Wow! Lotta energy.” Yup, she’s a puppy. It’s all pleasant enough but in this era of pandemic I’ve hit a serious wall with small talk. It’s a me problem (buts it’s also not, ya know?) As Suzan and forged ahead into the great wide open empty space I quickly realized why the park was empty. It was a swamp. It’s been raining for the past week, each step into the park sunk my light grey Paladium’s (what was I thinking) 3 inches into the brown muck. My first thought was immense frustration. I have a tendency to spiral lately, small offenses spin me out into a panic and suddenly I’m an emotional doomsday prep-er. “Don’t ever do anything. You’ll just end up disappointed.” Or some similar Caufielding cynicism. As I was deciding to turn around and trudge out of the failed park outing, I looked down to see that Suzan was elated. So we walked on. The mud got worse and then better and then far worse. We both got mud slick up to our ankles and suddenly I was laughing and Suzan was doing the dog equivalent of laughter, which is something between licking the air and speaking in tongues. Once we reached the top of the hill at the back end of the park we stopped and I gave Suzan some water and treats. Kids at the near by elementary school screamed while playing basketball and kickball, seagulls picked the worms from the mud, and my dog and I watched the field quietly, glad to have pushed through the mud to reach the peaceful moment.

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My wife and I took our dog on the walk we've done every other morning for the entire 18 months of Covid: along the beach at Rio Del Mar in California. It was misty and overcast, but not as cold as our end of 2021 walk, and we went to a slightly different part of the beach, so lots about it felt new and different. Looking up at the cliff behind us, I spotted a large tree more than two-thirds hidden in the mist, behind the tree that line the ridge top. A magical, mystical sight. Blessings and peace...

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Jan 6, 2022Liked by Isaac Fitzgerald

In the last few years, Grey Towers National Historic Site, in Milford, PA has become my New Year's silent adventure. No one else is ever there, and it's near the Delaware River so I can hang around there, too. There's a great view from the top of the hill, and comes complete with a mansion that's ever so slightly creepy, and an even creepier family cemetery. There's also a good, friendly bakery nearby when I need sugar. Something about the view makes me feel calm and free.

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I try to walk every day. My first walk of January 1 was at sunrise, my usual time, and it was, um, interesting. https://twitter.com/LauraMLippman/status/1477256004186353670

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Jan 5, 2022Liked by Isaac Fitzgerald

When we moved to LA we started a new family tradition of a walk on the beach for New Year's Day. This year it was the first time back to the beach since the walk we took the day my mom died in November. Some of my happiest memories I have as a kid was my mom taking us to the beach (all be it on a different coast) and watching my daughter run around in the sand gave me the space to be both joyful and sad. Trying to find a way to grieve and celebrate in the same space is hard but necessary. My Irish Catholic queen of the dark humor isn't life wonderful and terrible mother would have appreciated it.

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Jan 7, 2022Liked by Isaac Fitzgerald

Your question made me realise that I haven't been on a walk at all this year. And it's seven days in! Oh the horror. I'm just hoping to take a walk in the neighbourhood, nothing fancy. Avoiding cars and motorbikes and sweating in the hot, humid, Vietnamese air. Such is the life. :)

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Jan 6, 2022Liked by Isaac Fitzgerald

My wife and I wandered into new neighborhoods a few days into our new year in our new city in our new country of Portugal. We are starting to find the corners and niches we like--neither the large and efficient apartment blocks, nor the crumbling heatless ruínas, nor the new-tiled and shiny renovations targeting immigrants like us. We found medium-sized buildings mixed with homes, mixed with stores and cafes, near bus routes and trees. Long views to the sea. We wandered down to the river, carrying with us our new questions: will we be at home here? How will we begin to belong? And where?

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What a great story. I better watch out or your stories will actually get me walking regularly.

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My first walk of the year was in Griffith Park here in Los Angeles. There are over 50 miles of trails from which to choose but I selected one that meandered through the now abandoned former exhibit areas of the former LA Zoo. Instead of demolishing or dismantling the old pools, cages, etc. they just let nature take them back over (after a move to their current location in the 1960's). It is eerie and beautiful and wonderful that the earth and the animals have taken back what was once their captivity......

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On New Year's Day, I must have walked the dog very early but I don't remember doing so. The first walk that I remember taking is the walk I took with two friends during the early afternoon. We just walked the Prospect Park loop, as we've done a million times before, bemoaning the state of the world (which we've also done a million times before). The skies were gray and intermittently spitting. But when we rounded the corner at the bottom of the hill and began walking along the lake, something in the alchemy of water and sky resulted in a gentle fog seeping towards us. It could have been creepy but was somehow comforting instead, like the lake was rolling out a soft duvet for us to nap on. And then the ducks and swans waddled out of the lake and approached people standing on the shore, as if they wanted to have a good gossip about who got drunk on New Year's Eve.

It was all a little bit gorgeous and a little bit weird, which seems like the best one can hope for right now.

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My first walk of the new year was with my dog in Denver, CO. It was before 8 AM, the neighborhood was quiet and the snow was fresh and beautiful. As a special treat I took him to the nearby park (Washington Park). He did his first Zoomies of the year in the snow which is just about his favorite thing. Probably the best New Year’s Day walk I’ve ever had. 🙂

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