Heart Light Head Heavy

Something as simple as a healthy walk in the Midwestern fresh air can flip a mood or lighten an attitude and spirit of a walker. In Springfield, MO., there was a w= alking and exercise path circling a popular family city park across from my home.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> A person could engage in 6 –= 9 exercises, i.e. three tiered chin-up bars, cross-stomping grid, using the specifically-built wooden and metal equipment. Set just off the packed dirt path,= each had instructions burnished into wooden posts. These were strategically placed ar= ound the less than one mile course. Area residents had local philanthropist John Q. Hammons to thank for this cardio-health walk.

A benefit was added to my walks after I had read a mag= azine article entitled “How Am I Better Off ?” The gist of the article was to hav= e the readers ask themselves how their lives had improved in the previous six mon= ths to date.

As my responses came forward, my angst evaporated. The weight of missed opportunities= and my wallowing in decisions made or mistakes taken dissipated in the soft spr= ing air.

Understanding where we are at this time in our lives is perhaps less important than the appreciation of our here and now.

I offer you this gift: take a walk. Prepare y= our body and your mind prior to setting out.&n= bsp; Bring along your tasked attitude, the weight of unfinished business = and to-do lists. The following questions are my= own and inspired by the long ago questionnaire.

>What do you know today that you did not six months= ago?

>Who are the new people in your circle of influence within the time span?

>What have these folks taught you?

>In what ways are you better off than you were six = months ago?

The answers can give you immediate emotional and spirit riches.

The quote by Plotinus seems appropriate here: “Knowledge has three degrees—opinion, science, illumination. The means or instrument of the fir= st is sense; of the second, dialectic; of the third, intuition.” +

Reading which brought insight and inspiration for this article:

+Zen and the A= rt of Making a Living by Laurence G. Boldt, 1992<= /p>

The Art of Hap= piness

= A Handbook for Living by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D., 1998

Practicing the= Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, 1997

Desiderata

&= nbsp; Words for Life by Max Ehrmann, photographs by Mar= c Tauss, 2003

&nbs= p; (Poem first written in 1927)

The Zen of See= ing

&= nbsp; seeing/drawing as meditation by Frederick Franck, = 1973