Afoot

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, / Healthy, free, the world before me.   Walt Whitman

The open road usually happens later in life for women than it does for Whitmanesque boys without responsibilities; I don’t mind, I relish the wisdom of experience bulging in my backpack. The road of my life now opens, and I am truly grateful to be afoot and light-hearted, healthy, free, the world before me. Its been six weeks since I began my peripatetic life, in the sense that I now use my own two feet for transportation to meet my daily needs in the town I call home. (This photo isn’t me but the street is one I walk in Ajijic.)

For several years I’ve had the intention to live this way. The vision was cloudy though, having spent most of my life using vehicles to shop for food, go to work, visit friends, to recreate, for health care, to dine out. I couldn’t clearly imagine how it was going to feel to live my daily life on foot. Now I am living that life which I intended. It feels like— how life is supposed to be, a slow waltz instead of a marching song.

Walking as a way of life is changing me. Stopping to connect with friends on foot makes connection easy and regular. This morning, for example, before eight o’clock I greeted two good friends on the street.

I had just emerged onto Zaragoza Street from the back-of-the-courtyard-door of my living quarters when I ran into Conchita. Since I had not seen her anywhere before except on the street where she lives, and at the lake where she sells her weavings, it was a delight to be surprised by her captivating face and to see her dressed in a bright red Mixtec blouse, rather than her work attire of a tee shirt over an faded Mixtec skirt.

Then at the lake I passed Cathy (see Cathy Chalvignac Paintings on Fb), an amazing French Canadian artist who has made her home here for many years. We exchanged information about the Women’s Co-op clothing store needing new rental space, since their building is being sold. The Co-op women create and sell traditional hand-made Mexican embroidered clothing, like the artisan pants made for me by Rosario, who is seen in this vidclip: https://www.facebook.com/Lakesidecreationswomemscoop/ Cathy had no rental spaces in mind for the Co-op this morning, but I had the sense that networking about it with her would benefit the Co-op in some unforeseen way.

Do I digress? That’s what happens when you walk, and it only appears to be a digression if you are marching to a goal. But here, connecting with friends on foot is part of creating the day’s slow waltz. It unfurls flowers of surprise on the street! I expect that later in the morning, when I go out to the Tianguis, the Wednesday open market, I will run into other friends as well. Or make a new one. This is Part One of how a walking life is changing me. Stay tuned.