These Boots are Made for WALKIN'

Walking...

Feeling my feet on the ground

With my upper body erect

As my legs pull me forward

Breathing in the fresh air

Watching the cars drive by, the people pass, the clouds move across the sky

Enlivens me.

I haven’t driven my car since I pulled it into my assigned space in the parking garage.  It has been 4 days of walking to the market, walking to CVS, walking to dinner, walking the campus of Vanderbilt and around the city of Nashville.  My car is not quite a year old and has nearly 25,000 miles on it as everywhere I went in Indy required a long drive from my home in the country so this is a stark contrast that I am thoroughly enjoying. 

As I walked home from being out Thursday night, a cab driver pulled up to me asking if I needed a ride.  I shook my head No with a grin.  When I returned from the market yesterday, the concierge at my Condo building asked if I was staying dry on this rainy day to which I replied No with a grin explaining that I find it refreshing to walk in the rain and I am fortunate enough to have rain proof hair. 

Walking to grab a bite and watch the Kentucky Derby, a couple of guys approached me asking Are you a local? Without hesitation, I said Yes with a grin.  And I actually gave them a suggestion to eat at Chuy’s when they asked about good Mexican food and pointed them to Division Street where live music flows all night long. 

It may have been the boots I was rockin’ that made them think I was a local.  But my Frye harness boots aren’t actually cowboy boots; they were a purchase I made 12 years ago at the Grand Opening of Nordstrom downtown Indy.  These boots have carried me through many experiences in many cities and I love them because they just get better with each passing year.  No matter what these boots have been through (I will spare you the details of some of the bathrooms they have stomped through especially downtown Nashville), they endure beautifully and become even more cool from the weathering.

Life is meant to be walked through metaphorically and literally.  It is crucial to our very life force that we meet all that comes, cursing it, blessing it (we have to start at FU$% it to get to bless it), and eventually using it to remind us that each of us is a gift and we shall pass this way only once.  There is a confidence, a sure-footedness in this that comes from the well that springs from within enlivening us in times of rain and times of shine.

The invitation is to walk your walk remembering this is your life; there is no right or wrong, no good or bad, no have to’s or shoulds.  Let go of the reigns a little, the incessant need to control life and allow yourself to be with it.  Stay tuned in to what you need and what you want moment to moment, day by day and exercise your power of choice (or not! not making a choice is indeed choice).  No BSing yourself is a fierce way to live even if you aren't ready to take the next step in another direction.  This is the walk of FREEDOM: letting go and reaching for more.