A walk in the park

Walking is good for the body and soul.  It is a time for meditation and contemplation, a time for the body to readjust everything and bring it back into alignment.  I find myself naturally singing little chants in my head once I get into a rhythm.

“Walking into youth, walking into youth.  We shall go a walking, walking into youth.”  Pretty obvious what old hymn that is from and it’s funny because it doesn’t come from my own experience in church, but it speaks to some fundamental part of me and always has.  

I also find myself musing on the old houses here which isn’t surprising since my father used to bring me here on rides to look at these houses.  They are beautiful old ladies whose parlors could tell tales from history that would make today’s rentals rear up with pride.

And speaking of fathers, today I saw a young man walking towards me from about a block away.  He had a huge backpack on, long gray pants cut off at the ankles, an unbuttoned too big plaid shirt and braids all over his head.  He wasn’t very big, but he walked like a hiker, both thumbs hooked in the strap from his backpack that went around his waist.  I suddenly felt very vulnerable.  He didn’t look like a student.  He looked like, well, a hiker in an urban neighborhood and I began to think what I would do if he asked me for help, for a meal, or to take him home and I began to think up excuses to tell him why I couldn’t do that.

He got closer and closer and it was time for the obligatory, “Good morning” everyone shares when they pass here.  I smiled and said, “Good morning.”  He smiled and said, “Hi, Linda.”  He never paused, or broke stride and we both just kept going our separate ways.  I searched my mind frantically trying to remember ever meeting him.  I am not good with names, but I almost never forget a face.  I have no memory of his.

That led me into a train of thought I have had before.  Would I know God if I met him walking on the street?  Not the god within everyone talks about, but the old world, Biblical God of mythical proportions.  Odin, Shiva, Jehovah, the Earth Mother, God the Father. 

Just another walk in the park…