Walking: How to Make More from Less
Walking has always been a favourite pastime. Before I took up cycling it helped me loose a little weight and attain a fairly good level of condition. More importantly I enjoyed it, a relaxing way clear the mind and set life in perspective whilst taking a long, steady walk. The highlight was back in 2011, hiking through the Glaskogen reserve in Sweden for a week with a close friend, a large backpack and two half bottles of whisky to aid sleeping in outdoor shelters.
Such adventures now seem distant although the memory is still warming. I can no longer walk that far and am limited to routes close to home. So the trick, like so many things in life at the moment, is to find ways to make the most of something that is reduced.
Reduction
The walks may be short but they are still important, a nice part of the day. The maximum distance I can achieve is around two-and-half kilometres with the aid of a stick for the last few hundred metres. This is to help me keep balance and deal with foot drop on the right side. The distance has slowly gone down and that was always going to happen but, for all its inevitability, it can still feel difficult to accept. Looking back on Strava I notice that I was starting to struggle on four kilometres as far back as 2020. But I also notice in the comment for that particular walk a key statement. A suggestion of the way forward.
‘Gets difficult after 4km. But a nice excuse to stop and look around’. I may not be able to walk as far but stopping and looking around became the key to enjoy what I can do.
Observing and Recording
Now, stopping and looking around is almost the main target. Taking pictures as well. Nothing major or artistic, just with the iPhone. One of the luxuries of the modern world. A small telephone instead of a camera using film where you snapped the picture but had no way of knowing if it came out until that film was developed. Actually I do have something of a past with photography through a very old qualification in black-and-white photography. A City and Guilds achieved back when I was living in the UK in 1997. So old that I cannot find any details on the City and Guilds webpage!
Getting Out
The point is to go for a walk. The close proximity to home means I do not wear my leg support. Advice from my physio to undertake such walks without that support, but slowly and with a stick. The limits on me still allow for a small round near home or a walk to a neighbouring field. Nothing compared to the past but the past is gone. This is about making the most of the present.
The trick is to take something that could always be the same and take the time to observe – and hear – the differences and enjoy them. Embrace the small changes that I see in every walk.
Making the Most of It All
Hearing the difference means stopping and, well, listening. One of the advantages of the broken sensory filters that come with MS is that all the noise gets in. What might be hard work at a train station, for example, can actually be quite soothing in the middle of a field. Counting the number of birds singing, hearing distant shouts or just the sound of the wind. Relaxing isolation. This is not noise forcing its way in to my senses against my will. It is soothing, calming. Helping me make the most of what can be challenging.
It’s in observing the difference that the camera on the iPhone comes in to play. There is nothing systematic in the pictures I take. No attempt to demonstrate a hidden meaning or anything. The picture of a group of bulls in a snowy field does not reflect the darkness of winter engulfing nature. Or something like that. It was just… striking. Something that I may not see again. So I took a picture. Not very good but the moment is captured.
The Enjoyment of Walking
That picture and others like it mean little. It simply gives me a way to enjoy what I’m doing just a little bit more. A way to make more from less. I can’t undertake the big walks now but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy what I can do. The route may always be the same but the clouds are different. Taking a picture reminds me of that.
The pictures may not be significant but I like taking them. A little extra enjoyment, taking the time and making it a little different each time. It’s amazing how all these small moments in my shortened walks can somehow give me as much satisfaction as all the long walks of the past.
