Dear friends,
The idea for this post came to me after a friend and subscriber to my Substack (thanks, Saras!) mentioned that “Keep walking”, the namesake of a local walking group we both belong to, is the best goal for the new year.
Spot on, I thought! “Keep walking”.
There’s nothing more life-affirming than the act of walking. Nothing as intentionally optimistic as putting one foot in front of the other, in the hope of reaching a destination, completing a goal, or simply enjoying the gentle tread of our feet on earth.
As the late Zen master, Thich Nhat Hahn, said in The Miracle of Mindfulness:
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth.”
Thay, as he was called by his followers, refers here to how mindful the act of walking is, staying present step after step, and keeping a tight lid on those wandering thoughts. If the single-pointed focus on walking is accomplished well, it is nothing short of meditation.
“When you are walking along a path leading into a village, you can practice mindfulness. Walking along a dirt path, surrounded by patches of green grass, if you practice mindfulness you will experience that path, the path leading into the village. You practice by keeping this one thought alive: "I'm walking along the path leading into the village. Whether it's sunny or rainy, whether the path is dry or wet, you keep that one thought, but not just repeating it like a machine, over and over again. Machine thinking is the opposite of mindfulness. If we're really engaged in mindfulness while walking along the path to the village, then we will consider the act of each step we take as an infinite wonder, and a joy will open our hearts like a flower, enabling us to enter the world of reality.” The Miracle of Mindfulness
I love walking. Some of my earliest memories are of taking early morning walks around the lush Five Gardens in Mumbai’s Dadar Parsi Colony with mom and dad. Even summer vacations would kick off with a 6 am walk with my friends around Five Gardens. These were pre-electronic days of fun in the sun, starting (very) early in the day. Besides, in my family, there was no sleeping beyond sunrise—dad’s rule that has stuck for life, for better or for worse! And that sun, mind you, rises early in India, no matter what the time of the year it is!
In the evenings, even during the school year, us friends would walk the loop around the crowded Dadar TT Circle, a 10-minute walk from home (“TT” is an abbreviation for Tram Terminus that the area was during India’s pre-independence British days). The Dadar TT walk was a celebration of people watching and mindless chatting as we kept strolling the area, fighting a sea of evening shoppers and daily commuters.
Occasionally, we’d punctuate our walks with a hot snack of samosas and bhajjis at the famous D. Damodar store, then walk promptly into a neighborhood restaurant sweating from the spice and summer heat, begging the server for a drink of water to relieve our parched throats. No, carrying water bottles was not the norm and we had no money to purchase water. In fact, there was no bottled water sold those days, I don’t think!
The Dadar TT evening walks were therapeutic, notwithstanding the crowds and cacophony of Mumbai’s rush hour. There was a deep sense of permanence watching the same vendors, stores, and faces every day and just being present with friends—happy and silly—in the moment.
Even now, when I land in Mumbai every year, one of the first things I do in my jet-lagged stupor, is take an early morning walk of a few laps around Five Gardens, followed by more walking towards the almost 100-year-old hole-in-the-wall Mani’s lunch home for a filter coffee, and then walk back home doing the Dadar TT loop.
Despite the long 27-hour transatlantic journey from the U.S. to Mumbai, I keep walking. The walks comfort. It’s inexplicably liberating to use my own legs as a mode of transportation—it’s free and readily available. And, walking the ground of childhood and walking into the memories of yesteryears is doubly special.
When back here in the U.S., after my initial jet lag, I am up early fall taking a 5k walk around lake Centennial in our backyard. Walking the lake even kept us sane during the pandemic—when all else was shut, the path to the park could be accessed via a short walk from home. The lake has served me well as a buddy over the decades. Stuck on an assignment? Take a lake walk. Feeling blue? Walk to the lake. Want to see a bit of the world after being stuck to the computer? Call a buddy and walk around the lake.
Since it’s well established that I keep walking, I asked myself, well, why do I keep walking? Apart from the obvious benefits of movement being medicine, that is.
Walking keeps it real. Mainly, walking takes me away from the reality of this world, our daily life, that’s not really a reality. After all, the whole world is maya, or not real, says the Bhagavad Geeta. In the quote above by Thay, he talks about walking “enabling us to enter the world of reality”. That is, the zone your being enters when you focus on the present of walking, with the mind shut air tight to wandering thoughts, is reality. Reality is not what you have just left behind when starting the walk—the one where you get pulled here and there in myriad directions and what we call life. Walking keeps the reality real, and I appreciate that.
Walking is magical. In an ever-changing world, the repetitive movement of walking has a wondrous quality. It keeps giving—as soon as you take two steps, there are two more waiting in line to come ahead, as if by magic! Walking, hence, is perpetually pregnant with possibilities And yes, it keeps giving—it gives us a healthy body, mind, and spirit.
I asked Saras why she liked “Keep walking” as her new year’s goal, and she said:
“In short, ‘keep walking’ is progress in every walk of life. It’s synonymous with perseverance.”
So, let’s persevere and keep walking now and through the new year ahead. Here’s wishing everyone a happy 2024 and much progress in the year ahead!
Meaningfully yours,
Anu Prabhala
I felt myself relaxing just reading this. Gorgeous photos. A great new year resolution
Really nice as usual Anu ji. Liked the part of ‘ keeping reality real’ which I interpreted as helping focus on what is important and trim out the chaff. Centennial has been my go-to as well for walking and running and the pics were fab. Gurudev famously said ‘Walk, and the path will be clear’. Thanks for the post as always.