Friday, July 13, 2018

Walking to Hope

My son and I are friends on an app called Strava.  It is a fitness app that allows you to post your activities.  A few months ago I noticed my son started giving his activities cute names and often were accompanied by cute pictures as well. 

I started to name my walks and swims and aqua classes.  Often the name is just where I was, or who I was with but there is one that is named for where I am going. 

Walking to Hope.

Every Friday I meet some people for coffee at Hope Centre.  I have been meeting up with them since last November.   Now that the good weather is upon us I take advantage of it and walk the 4 1/2 km to the meeting place.  It takes me about 45 minutes.  My dh picks me up afterwards somewhere along the route as I walk home. 

I admitted to a friend recently that I don't like walking just to walk.  I need to be on an errand, or with a friend catching up.  I rarely will go for a walk without a destination in mind. 

Usually I walk to the mall to shop, or to the library to return/borrow a book, or to get my haircut, or see the doctor/dentist.  I am fortunate to live in a place where walking to these places is an option and is doable for me. 

But now Friday has become the best of destinations. 

I walk to Hope. 

As I walk I reflect on the beauty of where I live.  The horse stables I pass by.  The house with all the bird houses in the front yard. 


The house with the hedge trimmed like a prancing pony.

 I even give thanks for the new construction that has allowed for a wonderful walking/biking path under the highway overpass.  It used to be such a dank, scary place to walk under.  I walk past the old houses on the grand boulevard and the more modern ones that seem to be springing up here and there.  A district in transition.

Just like me.











7 comments:

  1. I use(d) strava too :) And I also can't walk just to walk, I don't see the point of it. :))

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  2. I smiled as I read this. I've been finding lately that I enjoy walking alone, and before the blasted heatwave hit, I was pretty committed to walking solely for the exercise. And frankly, I don't want to slow myself down by walking with someone else. But I've been challenging myself to think outside of myself and have tried asking a few others to walk on occasion and it never seems to work out. My spur of the moment walks, clearly don't work for others who have any kind of life. That's fair. I doubt I'd be all that interested in dropping everything to go for a tiring sweaty walk I hadn't planned on. For the moment I walk alone. I love the idea of naming walks (or maybe places I walk to). I love the name of your newest walk. :)

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    1. Yes walking with others can be challenging, especially if their pace defers from mine. My husband and sister are always reminding me to walk 'with' them, not ahead of them. lol

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  3. You are a champion. I have fallen into another hole. the first thing i dump is exercising. I hate it. I know it's the worst kind of behaviour, but i still do it... or don't do it...
    Bravo Mary-Anne...

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  4. I like the idea of walking to Hope. I try to keep my walking up but it usually is doing errands, getting the grandson to sleep etc. Hard to find time to just walk.

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  5. Those bird houses are fun; they'd fit in Harry Potter's world or Lord of the Rings. That prancing pony is so fun! I love how you and your son use this app and share stats w/one another. I use Map My Run because it has so many options for recording different types of exercise. I was roller blading at the time.

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I look forward to reading the comments. It makes me feel like I am not just posting into the void.