-6- The Road Goes On For Ever

"The road goes on forever, and the party never ends"...the refrain from a song by Robert Earl Keen. The song is about two not so nice people who do some not so nice things and has very little to do with walking. But the song is a good one to sing while walking ( preferably alone and quietly in my case since my singing voice is not ready for The Next American Idol just yet ). I am sure Robert Earl would not mind my borrowing his song for a while as he does seem to live in the spirit of Walking points. The road does indeed go on for ever and as long as we can walk it the party never ends.

Walking is a great time to speak your mind. Step out on the trail or road, get your walking rhythm established and begin the journey. Organize your inner thoughts and let them out in a cascade of words for everyone to hear. The floor is yours and you have the say. Your walking companions get the benefit of your ideas. Walking companions can be a friend, relative or significant other. They can walk on two feet or four feet ( read "Four Feet" by Rudyard Kipling sometime).Your companions can be living or departed, or not yet arrived.

I learned long ago that you never walk alone. One always has lots of company. Dogs are great walkers, always interested in what is beyond the next bend. They rarely interrupt you, although their attention span is not the greatest. Your shadow is always with you, carrying on its eternal dance away from the sun. Shadow hides beneath your feet at noon and grows braver and longer by the hour, until sunset when it rushes out to join all the other shadows that have come out from hiding. As you walk, your memories come out to join you. Memories from yesterday, memories from long ago, just waiting for the right moment to walk with you for awhile. They live in the gray area between now and then, they whisper in your mind about the time when. They are old friends, relatives who are gone, times that are gone, but not gone for ever. They are thoughts of the future and what lies out there next week or next year, what is just around the corner ahead. They are ready to walk with you always for a few steps anytime you wish.

I nearly always use a walking staff or stick of some sort. The habit first came growing up on the ranch in southern Arizona 50 plus years ago. We would walk out for the evening when things began to cool off. We would always take a snake stick to tap the grass and bushes before us while walking. The area had many rattlesnakes and a few corral snakes. They would come out to hunt once the heat of the day was off. The idea was if there was a rattlesnake in your path, the stick would cause the snake to rattle and you would be warned. This was a good thing because we were far from the hospital, there was no telephone and emergency response was measured in days not minutes. A snake bite would have serious consequences. Luckily none of us were ever the victim of a snakebite. We had some close encounters, but no bites.

I find a walking stick or staff helps keep my pace steady, so I use them today. My favorite stick I have had for about 22 years. I bought it at a small crafts fair in Scotland. I spent a year working in support of a communications center in Northern Scotland. The Scots are great walkers and have trails that go all over the place. I got my stick to help walk in the highlands. The elderly Scottish gentleman had a number of nice long sticks with stag horn on the top and a metal tip on the bottom. I asked how much the walking sticks were and he informed me that they were not walking sticks. They were shepherd's staffs. I bought my stick anyway as I had no need for a shepherd's staff, but I did need a good walking stick. I still use the stick to this day, the metal tip has worn off, but it still gets the job done. I have no snakes to chase or sheep to herd, but I do lean on the stick a bit more than I used to.

Time to close for now, happy hiking to you all.