“Ecstasy of living”.
When I stumbled into this phrase, certain recollections immediately flashed in my mind :
After a good day’s sweat followed by a good meal and a good nights sleep.
That feeling when snuggling with a certain someone and feeling gratitude for the life we have.
After a good conversation.
After doing an activity that strengthens a relationship.
After a good belly laugh.
When puppy thinks of my body as hers and tries to disappear into me. Such big love from such a small creature !
To see the baby trees we put into the ground grow up and create habitats.
A certain walk in the forest that puppy and I had gone on recently. And thought : This is heaven. When I die, leave me here and let my body fertilize the forest. Next to this patch of moss and lichen. Under the sycamores. Can my carbon go into an oak tree, a scrub jay and moss in its next life ? Can I live here ?
I thought of how alive we felt when walking through a certain collage town last month. Exploration of places, old and new, makes me feel alive.
That last Saturday late morning walk with him in the city punctuated by a hot coffee+a book and a spicy sandwich+cold beer.
The land we live on, is a big love for us. We are surrounded by folks who are constantly plotting their out migration from California. Portland. Austin. Seattle. NYC. European cities. All rivals wanting to physically steal our friends. We, on the other hand, are finding more ways to be here and deeply travel “our place”. Live in different neighborhoods. Walk every street, in every corner of the Bay. Walk the entire shoreline. Walk the ridges. Walk along every trail open to us public. Walk the fire roads and cattle trails too. Walk along the tectonic fault lines and the lakes they created. Call it travel. Call it slow leisure. Call it exercise. We the humans arent meant to be doing one strenuous workout per day and go stagnant for the rest of the day. We are made for walking, not sitting all day. Our places should gently exercise us through out the day. Urban design should increase our well being, not be centered around moving cars along and create ugly stroads everywhere. Our places should make walks a pleasure by allowing us to sample architecture, commerce, urban nature, people, culture, music and food. Walking improves creativity and health, in a city planned for people, not cars.
Interacting with a place, is when my style is truly “expressed”. My clothes live their quarter lives when they toggle between sitting in a car and then subsequently sitting indoors. I have big feelings about clothes, what their full lives look like and when my style is alive. It’s never centered around an image of me being seen in nice clothes. In those visions, I am in a state of movement. In a state of discovery. I am deeply moved when I see well travelled shoes or patched up jacket or a battered handbag on woman who walk. Clothes embody a certain spirit of travel for me and are becoming less about personal vanity. To see, not to be seen. To be a part of something larger, not “I, me, my”. Doing, not owning. Walking, is my greatest slow leisure. That I get to people watch and admire outfits of people on the move, makes it slow fashion related leisure.
Links :
Ode to women who walk, in movies.
Books : How to walk by Thich Nhat Hanh. Way Makers, An anthology of women’s writing about walking, Walking one step at a time by Erling Kagge. Wanderlust: A history of walking by Rebecca Solnit. Do Walk: Navigate earth, mind and body. By Libby Delana.
Video : Lizzy Hadfield walking around London.
SF folk, celebrate bike day and independent bookstores on April 27th.
Bay Area folk, go see this play celebrating the life of Betty Reid Soskin immediately.
This was magical to read! As an apparel technical designer, we have to think of how the clothing functions as the body moves, the functional fit. But I find myself distracted by the static mirror image sometimes. Thank you for the great reminder.
Thank you for the beautiful list of book recommendations, they sound exactly like what I need. Working from home makes it too easy for me to just mooch indoors and I need more inspiration and reasons to go out. I've also become motivated to dress better even if I'm just walking out to buy a box of pasta for dinner, and it is telling which items in my wardrobe suit this life more than others!