"I've been looking at The 12 Hour Walk," Liz said at the end of dinner one night. This was about a month or so ago.
She had that look in her eyes that I know so well.
I suppose I would describe it as a medley of intrigue, inquisitiveness, and wonder sprinkled with a layer of playfulness and an underlying sense of adventure.
It's one of the things I love the most about Liz. Her sense of adventure. Her openness to new experiences. The joy she takes in going with the flow and relishing in the tangential paths that can enlighten a journey.
Since we first met, I could always count on those fantastic, often unexpected moments. Those opportunities to, as the Roman poet Horace put it, allowed us to carpe diem - "pluck the day" or, as it has been translated to "seize the day."
This was one such moment.
Liz went on to describe The 12 Hour Walk. And my initial instinct was: Sounds intriguing. But why can't I just do it while listening to an audio book, or a podcast?
She explained that it was about disconnecting from the digital world. Being alone with your thoughts. Attending to the world around you. Attending to your body and what it's telling you.
"But," I insisted. "That's 12 hours that could be put to good use while I'm out exercising and getting fresh air. I could listen to an entire audio book in that time. Or perhaps two different shorter books. Get caught up on multiple podcasts I'm behind in listening to."
She slowly shook her head. I didn't get it. But she knew I would eventually come around.
I can be that way sometimes. Initially resistant to a new idea. But once I allow it to sink in, it slowly starts to dawn on me, to mix metaphors.
The idea of doing a long walk was something I loved doing. In fact, last summer I participated in something like that of my own doing. I had an unscheduled weekend afternoon on a beautiful day, where I set off from my house in mid morning, with a loose plan of just exploring some of the nature trails and walking paths in the Waterloo and Kitchener area.
On this solo journey, I was listening to an audiobook - it might have been The Nature Principle by Richard Louv, as well as a few podcasts. My walk took me Northwest through our neighborhood and along the Forwell Trail system that follows the Forwell creek and goes through a beautifully densely wooded area that, despite the sounds of traffic from the nearby parkway and other streets, might lead you to believe you were walking through a forest, then further south along the Laurel Trail, that brought me, through mostly tree-lined, natural areas, to uptown Waterloo. I then spent some time browsing and purchasing a few books at Words Worth Books, a long-time indie bookstore. Then working my way further south, along the Iron Horse Trail to Arabella Beer Park in Kitchener where I sat at the bar for about an hour, had a burger, a couple of beers, and read through one of the books I'd bought at Words Worth about a local haunted location for a book I've been researching.
Then I got back on the Iron Horse Trail and followed it further south until I took a branch of it off to Victoria Park, where there was a cultural festival going on, which I enjoyed exploring.
From there, I went into downtown Kitchener, stopped in at KW Bookstore, where I purchased a magazine and a few old Spider-Man comics.
I then made my way down Victoria Street where I walked by a pizza place (Papa Joe's) that Alexander and I had ordered pizza from a few years back, and felt hungry again. As I considered getting myself a pizza, I noticed a large homeless encampment across the street in an abandoned lot that had been in the news a lot lately.
I thought about my friend Peter who'd been living homeless in the UK on and off for years, trapped in a system that never gave him a break. So I went into Papa Joe's and ordered four different styles of large pizzas to bring over to the people there.
As I waited for the pizzas I watched from across the street as the folks living there went about their business not all that different than neighbors in any community who were socializing. I knew that bringing a little bit of food wasn't going to solve anything for them. But I felt that, at the very least, showing them a little bit of thoughtfulness was at least a step in the right direction. There's so much more for us to do. But victory is won in small steps. And one small step is showing compassion for our fellow humans.
I then moved along Victoria to Descendants Brewery, where I had a bit of a snack and a couple more beers. Then I turned left on Lancaster and headed back in the direction of home, which was about another 30 to 40 minute walk.
This day last summer was perhaps less than six hours in total, but it was one of the most fulfilling and enlightening solo days that has continued to stick with me.
Imagining how much more powerful extending that time, and not having any auditory/digital distractions - spending the entire time in my head, appealed to me more and more the further I thought about it.
Like I said, I don't always come around to a new idea, but this one appealed to me and grew on me. Liz read the book and talked about it, and we planned on trying to make it happen sooner rather than later.
Ideally, given it was 12 hours, we wanted to do it when the sun was out so we didn't have to deal with lighting/darkness issues, and we figured doing this before the days got too hot would work well.
So, we ended up planning it for Sunday May 28th.
