View from our stoop.
There is this to be said for walking: it is the one method of human locomotion by which a man or woman proceeds erect, upright, proud and independent, not squatting on the haunches like a frog. Little boys love machines. Grown-up men and women like to walk.
— Edward Abbey, Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast, 2007
Dawn Kirkwood
I’m an independent cuss, and I make most of my life choices in support of that trait. I like having access to as many options as possible, and that includes mobility. Walking is always my first choice. I set my own pace and route. I’m out in the fresh air, I let my mind wander, and I can really look at/listen to my surroundings. I believe in doing one thing at a time, so I do not listen to music or audio books or talk on my phone while walking. It’s a bit of escapism I build into my daily routine.
Since one’s survival depends on being hyper-alert when biking in my city, I am not a bicycle commuter. I live near a major bike path, though, so I frequently hop on my ten-speed and peddle as fast as I can along Cherry Creek. I love that surge of power when my legs really start pumping. That and the sense of freedom, knowing I’m completely in control, equal pure joy.
For practical considerations as well as sociological observations, I am a frequent user of public transit. Major bus routes and light rail stops are within walking distance of my apartment. And yes, I own a car — an ’04 Toyota with 53,000 miles on the odometer.
— Dawn Kirkwood
Denver, CO
I work from home these days. As I considered my workplace options, I also looked at sharing an office space or renting a private office. Either might work for me at some point, and I found some nice professional spaces that would be either a thirty-minute walk or a ten-minute bike ride away. That would take a bit of time, but it’s honestly not that much, and it would be very enjoyable time, for the most part. But more on that later.
Some people who report to an office every day idealize working at home and think, “Wow, it must be great to have that kind of flexibility.” But in actuality, working from home is not that different from going to an office or other workplace. In my twenty or so years of working in the professional world, I’ve worked in small offices, large office towers, my own living room, coffee shops, conference rooms and cafés. In any situation, you develop a routine and habits in order to maximize your day, and you also entertain distractions to rest and refuel. At home, I might flip on the TV at some point to take a break, whereas at work in one of my former jobs we routinely played a video game called Redneck Rampage whenever we could. The truth is, work is work, and we build flexibility and rigidity into our days, often without giving it much conscious thought.
But still, I’m sure my routine is different from yours. A big part of what makes my workdays distinctive is not just that I work from home, but where I live. If I lived on a typical suburban street with a cul-de-sac at the end, my daily routine would be very different. For one, it would involve a lot more driving whenever I want to leave the house. Here, most of my excursions out are walking trips. Let me walk you through (pun intended) an ordinary Monday in my life.
I roll out of bed and get cleaned up. My girlfriend Jamie rises earlier than I do, and she’s kind enough to make sure there’s coffee waiting downstairs. A small cup gets me started and is handy as I scan my messages and e-mails. My clients and my work span the country, so I might have e-mails from a variety of time zones to deal with at any given moment. Also, early morning is a great time for me to catch up on the news of the day, and I browse a few favorite websites that keep me abreast of what I care about. Sure, like most people, I take a look at Facebook as well.
It’s not long before I’ve got a full belly from breakfast, and the workday is underway. At some point mid-morning, I love to take a short break and walk to my favorite coffee shop. They make a particularly great version of café con leche, the Cuban coffee concoction, and it puts about ten thousand watts into my veins. As the coffee shop is about a seven- or eight-minute walk away, it also gives me a chance to walk off some food and enjoy a little fresh air. On most days, I like to sit in the shop and drink the coffee, which calms down the morning work anxiety and stirs my creative juices. Some days, there’s not enough time, so it’s café con leche to go, and back to the laptop.
Jamie and I met shortly after I moved to Savannah. We met in large part due to a social group on Meetup.com, which used to have regular pub crawls downtown. On one fateful November evening, we pub crawled into each other at Sixpence Pub, a notorious local tavern (where Julia Roberts was filmed in the movie Something to Talk About). After a couple of hours of getting to know each other (and a couple of pints), the rest was history. And yes, I walked to the pub crawl, and I walked home as well. Fortunately for me, Jamie also enjoys being active and walking around the city.
Walk your way to love.
Without my quite realizing how much time has gone by, lunchtime arrives, and it’s down to the kitchen to find something to eat. A lot of days lunch is something very simple in order to maximize my working time and keep my focus. On this day, I keep it light and quick so I can also get out and run a couple of errands. Today, I hop on the bicycle (my fifteen-year-old Schwinn hybrid mountain bike) and head downtown. Ten minutes later (to walk, it would take about twenty-five minutes) I’m at the post office, where I lock up the bike. From there, I’m able to walk across the street and go to the bank as well, so two important tasks are complete. Back on the bike, I head home through some beautiful streets and around tree-lined squares, feeling invigorated and ready for the afternoon. One of the beauties of this bit of errand-running is that each day I can vary my route just a little, and experience something new. Worries like traffic and parking don’t even cross my mind.
Once the workday is done (which is really never when you work from home), it’s time to do some real exercise to get my heart rate up. On this day I choose running, which is my default option. It’s an easy walk of about ten minutes down to Forsyth Park, a thirty-acre city park in the midst of the neighborhood, and it’s a one-mile loop around the perimeter. Today, I run three miles in the park and then run out of the park on the city sidewalks for another quarter mile or so — just to officially feel like I’ve done 5K. The stroll home from there is very short, but it gives me time to cool down a bit before going inside. Then it’s shower, eat and get ready for the evening.
Monday nights are trivia nights when Jamie and I are in town together, and we walk over to Crystal Beer Parlor for its version of the fun. It’s about a twenty-minute walk, but our route takes us through the park and some beautiful streets, so even chilly nights don’t bother us much. In fact, it’s often invigorating physically and mentally to stretch our legs like this in the evening. We play, and enjoy a couple beers. Valiantly, our team (Grab Something Random) competes, but we come up short of the prize money. Oh well — maybe next time. Who knew that a group of unicorns is called a blessing? Clearly, not us. At any rate, we stroll back home and call it a night.
All in all, it’s a day filled with activities similar to a lot of other people’s. I worked a full day, ate several meals, exercised and spent time with friends and loved ones. It’s just that the way I went about it seems not so ordinary.