Walking doesn’t only make us mindful and present, it makes that presence useful.
References
Gros, F. (2014). A Philosophy of Walking. Verso.
Walking is no longer undertaken to fuel invention, but exactly for nothing: just to connect with the movement of the sinking sun, to echo with slow tread the cadence of the minutes, hours and days. To walk like that is to punctuate the day a little, without really thinking about it.
For, once you no longer expect anything from the world on these aimless and peaceful walks, that is when the world delivers itself to you, gives itself, yields itself up. When you no longer expect anything. All is then bestowed as a supplement, a gratuitous favour of presence, of being there. You are already dead to the world of struggles, triumphs, projects, hopes. But this sun, these colours, that scroll of blue smoke gently rising down there, these crackling branches: everything is given and more.