These Feet Were Made For Walking

You’re a camel. What? This is a card I drew for fun from a deck of “What animal are you?” cards with a group of girlfriends one night. Why couldn’t I have drawn something more stoic or stealth like an eagle or a lion? As I groaned in disappointment, my friend Molly joyfully exclaimed, “Stephenson! That totally fits you! Think of how adaptable and resilient camels are! I thought I had pulled the worst possible card until Molly made me ponder how my life might figuratively compare to a camel. Attributes of the camel include; survival, travel, service, strength, self sufficiency and conservation. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad draw. I have been all those things through some of the adversities I’ve faced. I see myself as one who has kept going, one foot in front of the other, walking my way from one day to the next.

Over the last nine years, I have traveled all over the country. I have walked in more than half of our fifty states. Since I was a little girl, I have liked walking. A spirit of adventure was born in me from family camping trips and spending time at my grandparents lake home in northern Minnesota. In the great outdoors is where I escape to find solitude and peace. The “cabin” as we called my grandparents lake home, was on a lake that had no public access, so it was quiet. Mature trees filled the property with the sweet sound of songbirds playing in the background. From waking up til sundown, my time was spent outside, breathing in the fresh, unpolluted air, which smelled completely different from the city.

John Muir, a Naturalist (among many other things) and co-founder of The Sierra Club, penned numerous quotes about the time he spent in nature. This is one of my favorites:

Keep close to Nature’s heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

Wherever I’ve lived I have sought out nearby woods, taking to them for escape and solitude. When I walk in with my mind full of wandering thoughts, they quickly change to a state of discovery in what surrounds me. My senses come alive with the sights, sounds and smells. My focus moves from my to do list to the deep sense of patience and trust life in the woods represents. The further I walk, the more relaxed I become. The wandering thoughts disappear and get replaced with a sense of peace and gratitude. I emerge renewed and refreshed or as Muir said, “like my spirit has been washed clean”. However, it doesn’t take a week to make this happen, it can be done in a single hour!

In 1901, Muir published a book entitled, “Our National Parks”. It got the attention of President (Theo.) Roosevelt who visited him two years later at Yosemite National Park. The President requested a deeper look into the woods and the two of them spent the night under the stars. Roosevelt later told a crowd, “Lying out at night under those giant Sequoias was like lying in a temple built by no hand of man, a temple grander than any human architect could by any possibility build.” This experience birthed the conservation programs that would become part of Roosevelt’s legacy.

I have not been to Yosemite National Park, but I have been to Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco. This is another place where the Redwood trees stand as forbearing giants of the woods. Walking into this forest immediately rendered me silent. I was in complete and total awe. I felt like I had stepped into a place on the earth where the roots grow deeper and the branches reach higher than anywhere else. I was almost breathless. When my son was very small, as part of our bedtime routine, he would tell me he loved me “tall as all the trees.” Feeling like a spec of sand where I stood, I looked up and thought out loud, “yeah buddy, I loved you that much too!” As small children, trees do seem like giants. For my young son to compare his love for me to these glorious majesties of the woods now made perfect sense.

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. -John Muir

This past summer, in honor of Memorial Day, I walked 23 miles in 24 hours. It was a walk completely in the city. I had never walked this distance. Like a camel, my feet adapted. Like a camel, I relied on my own strength and didn’t push too hard. As I walked the suburban neighborhoods and eventually the shores of Lake Michigan, I began to feel gratitude for my journey. Every step I had taken in the past led to the moment I crossed the finish line.

In writing this, I managed to find a likeness between what a camel might say and what an engineer, naturalist, philosopher, writer, botanist, geologist, environmentalist like John Muir said. The below quotes essentially say the same thing.

Slow down and reserve your energy. I must teach you the importance of survival and living from within -Message from the Camel card.

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. -John Muir

The feet of a camel represent it’s character, what it endures and stands for. My feet have done the same, taking me many places. Above all, they have led me to my own heart; the place where peace, solitude and contentment are perfectly measured in order for me to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I looked inside myself and found that being like a camel wasn’t such a bad thing after all.