To start this walking blog on an auspicious note, I wish a wonderful life walk to all and everyone! As the Sephardic blessing goes, "Paths of milk and honey!"
I collect proverbs and greeting words, and greeting itself is a magical act. When you say "Hello" to someone, you are using an old Anglo Saxon blessing word that is wishing health and wholeness, as well as happiness, to him or her--in keeping with the wholistic worldview that characterized the Anglo Saxons as well as so many other tribal peoples. The greeting terms of other lands have similar associations. For example, "salute" comes from Latin roots that are related to salutary (healthful) and even salt as a healthful, protective substance. Walking provides an opportunity for many hellos, and as I walk, I try to extend my Hellos not just to the humans I meet, but also to animals and to distinctive features of the natural as well as built environment. Such "rites of greeting" enable us to engage the environments we pass through in ways that make us participants, not just mere observers.
Therefore, I wish us all innumerable hearty hellos, as we greet our world, and in return, receive greetings from that world.
This is the record of my thoughts and impressions as I walk in a variety of landscapes. Here, I hope to explore the ways that history and natural history, landscaping and gardening, vernacular architecture and other features of home design, neighborhoods and outdoor places as social spaces, psychology, anthropology, folklore, literature, and much more--including the kinetics of walking itself--inspire an imaginatively magical way of engaging the environment
The Magic of Walking
Whether walking in ordinary neighborhoods or along city streets or country roads, passing through industrial or commercial districts, following railroad tracks or river beds, exploring parks or cemeteries, or spending time at the beach or in other natural environments, we can make our walks more interesting and entertaining by imaginatively engaging the landscapes we wander through. Because there are so many ways to find magic in common landscapes, this blog is focused on the whimsical approaches.
Some of the playfully magical things that we can project our imaginations into include miniature landscapes (such as the fairylands we can picture around the gnarled roots of trees), places beyond normal boundaries (such as the hole in the hedge or the place where the sidewalk ends), spectacles that homeowners stage for their communities (holiday decorations and lawn ornaments as performance art), interesting people and animals encountered, and much more.
Some of the playfully magical things that we can project our imaginations into include miniature landscapes (such as the fairylands we can picture around the gnarled roots of trees), places beyond normal boundaries (such as the hole in the hedge or the place where the sidewalk ends), spectacles that homeowners stage for their communities (holiday decorations and lawn ornaments as performance art), interesting people and animals encountered, and much more.
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About Me
- Janie Quick
- I am an American Studies dropout who divides my time between eking out a living on the margins of society and devoting myself to the project of "re-enchanting the landscape."
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1 comment:
This made me think of something I read few years ago about taking a moment to say a prayer or blessing over food before eating. Doing so can actually make any meal more nourishing at the quantum level. If that is true, then a greeting would have a same positive impact on both the giver and the receiver. Thank for reminding me.
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