To Walk or Not To Walk?

[Edwin]

Since I started walking the doggies, I have done that steadily, and it has been several years now! At first I walked from here to the mailbox, but without going into too much detail, our daughter got mad at me because my doggies were peeing on the snow banks!!!! Well, I took it for 2 months, and Carol and I talked about it, and we decided that she had no right to keep me from walking my doggies! So I took them out through the field so they would pee on the snow banks, and onto the county road, where I walked them 6.5 miles, which I am still doing. She thought I was sneaking out through the field so that she would not realize that I was walking the doggies, but that was not it at all. She told me that she would rather that I would walk out to the county road on our road so that the doggies would not tare up the field, so that is what I have been doing since. I have been religious about walking until a short time ago, and because of my son-in-law helping me I had to be available to help him. Because of that I started walking in the morning instead of the evening. Some days we have worked all day, putting in long days, so I have not been able to walk at all. Then lately I have had jobs that I needed to do, and that 2 hours that I normally spend walking I really needed to devote to working partially because we are on the verge of winter, and making progress on this project is an emergency because of the severely cold weather and storms we are facing. Normally there is not question, shall I walk, or shall I not walk, but lately it is maybe I shouldn't walk this time! I was going to walk this morning, but I decided that I really should get my bathroom floor sanded, so that is what I did. I was going to walk this afternoon, but I decided that I really should get my pickup brakes fixed, so that is what I worked on. A few days before that we had cold temperatures and wind, and since I have been sick, I decided that if made more sense to stay either inside, or close to the house, so that I could come in and warm up when needed. So the walking has been suffering, but soon this project will be completed enough so that I will be able to walk instead of feeling like I need to be working at something else. I walked most every day last winter with several shirts on, a light jacket and a heavy coat, as well as a stocking hat, gloves, and scarf to wrap over my mouth to protect my lungs from cold freezing air temperatures, and I walked most every day, except for just a few days that it was really too cold, and too dangerous to be out walking in the storms. Like Carol's brother told her about a year before he died, "walking is better than any number of pills you can take to try to keep healthy!" Walking is one of the best things you can do for your health, mental health, physical health, whatever kind of health you want to talk about!

[Smiley]

Don`t feel too guilty about missing some days.Walk as much as you can,whenever you can.Your Brother in law was right.Walking is one of the kindest things that you can do for yourself. Good luck getting back to it,I bet the dogs will be ready whenever you are.

[Edwin]

Those doggies are begging to walk every day. Carol says, that I am the one feeling badly about not walking, but those poor doggies are feeling badly about it too. But you are right, Smiley, we can't afford guilt trips when we are not able to do it, even though we want to, and we will be back to walking shortly, and will walk as often as possible. When the doggies realize it is time to walk they begin to cry until we are out walking; they love it!

[crisipicada]

When I am in the barrio, i walk a lot. It is good to walk because it makes you sleep well. And also, I use to jog in the morning when it is not raining.

[Edwin]

Walking is one of the best things you can do for your health. I have been neglecting it lately, and the doggies are wondering what happened to their walks, but once I get enough work accomplished I will be walking again, and we will all be happy.

[mystic]

I am a bit lazy to walk. But I like to climb ladders. Especially put a long ladder to a cloud, climb to the cloud and watch from heaven's perspective what's happening on the earth

Well, that's a metaphor obviously. I prefer to engage in meditation, stop for a moment to appreciate things, look around me, etc. If I have to walk to go in the nature, I do it, but walking is the means, not the goal.

[Edwin]

Yes, mystic, climbing ladders is very good exercise, and probably more vigorous than walking depending on how you go about it. Make sure your ladder is seated properly on the ground however for your health's sake, and don't ever lean and reach for something when you are on a ladder or you might change the weight balance and find yourself on the ground. I climbed on an extension ladder once to do a job, and before I could finish the extension ladder started ratcheting down, and all I could do was stand there and ride it down. Amazingly it was not a wreck, and I was still standing on that ladder when it came down to its last adjustment, and still leaning against the building only not as far off the ground!

I had a high school music teacher, and he taught other subjests as well except for Physical Education. He used to tell us that if he could he would drive his car from his livingroom to his bathroom, and he lived in a very small house!!

[jadegil6]

Walking is the easiest way to get exercise according to most experts. That is what I do on a daily basis, usually for 3 miles, but sometimes when I feel pressed for time, I drop that to two miles.
Ladders are another story
In 1998 I stepped from a roof to a ladder that was not set well, and the feet of that ladder slid as soon as I shifted my weight from the roof to the ladder. I only had one foot on the ladder at the time it moved, and I fell 2 stories onto an asphalt parking lot. I am lucky to have survived that fall. I had multiple injuries, and wasn't able to work for more than a year. I had to relearn how to walk again because of my spinal cord injury. So being able to walk is now a real blessing.
Thank you Lord!

[Edwin]

Yes, ladders can be very dangerous. I am glad, Sir Michael, that you survived that fall and that you recuperated to where you could walk again. Until just a few years ago I had not in my entire life walked on a regular basis. I would walk sometimes for what I needed, or I would sometimes go for a walk with someone, but I never purposely walked each day. Our youngest granddaughter asked me if I would teach her dog to lead, and that is how I got started walking, teaching Scooby to lead, and after several years I am still trying to teach him to lead. Then it dawned on me that it was probably good for my health to walk, and I have been walking ever since. We have gotten in a bind for things that badly need to be done before winter, and actually winter is here, so I have not been walking lately, but putting in long hours working without pay! It will be nice when I get caught up with my projects so that I can walk again. When I walk. which is every day that I can, except lately, or when we have to be gone when it is time to walk, I walk 6.5 miles. I normally plan anything I do around walking except lately, but that will change, and I will walk as long as it doesn't risk my health by being out when it is dangerously cold and the wind if bowing.

[mystic]

Well, sorry to hear about the bad stories about ladders. Indeed mine was a metaphor rather than real ladders.

Despite I never thought it this way, I was drawn to this consideration: if falling from a material ladder can bring so much harm... how much harm can bring falling from a spiritual ladder?

Well, when a love story ends, it is like falling from a ladder, indeed...