Sketchbook for Walking

Here are some selected images from my sketchbook for the conceptual walking class. I tend to think better when the thoughts are out of my head.

Kumbh Mela

 The following info was taken from - http://www.meriyatrra.com/travel-places/kumbh-mela_1.html

Maha Kumbha Mela is held in Allahabad every 12 years. It also takes place in three other holy places in India every 12 years— Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik. The time for Kumbha-mela is judged by the astrological positions of Jupiter and the Sun. In Prayag (Allahabad) the Kumbha-mela takes place during January-February, when Jupiter is in Taurus and the Sun enters Capricorn. The Kumbha-mela in Prayag (Allahabad) is considered especially auspicious. This very interesting event draws about 15 million people and is the largest attended event in the world. 

A huge temporary city is created for the millions of pilgrims that arrive for the most auspicious bathing days. Kumbha Mela is like a Yogi Convention, where yogis, sadhus (saints), holy people, and pilgrims come from all over India. Many sadhus come from various holy places, the most remote forests, and mountain caves in the Himalayas. The most famous are the Naga Babas, who are completely naked. They cover their bodies only with ash and wear their hair in dreadlocks. 

It is said that if one bathes at the Sangam of the Ganges, Yamuna and underground Saraswati on one of the main bathing days during Kumbha Mela that one attains liberation. In the Vishnu Purana it says that one get a great benefit from bathing during Kumbha Mela than performing 1,000 Ashwamedha Yajnas (horse sacrifices) or circumambulating the earth 100,0000 times. It is said that by bathing at Kumbha Mela that all a person’s sins are washed away and that 88 generations of ancestors are benefited. 

The main bathing days are known as Shahi Snans or Royal Bathing Days. The main bathing day, when the most people come, was on January 24, on the Mauni Amavasya day (the dark moon), when over 15 million people are said to have bathed. The next main day or Shahi Snan is said to be on Basant Panchami (fifth day of the new moon), January 29. I went to the Kumbha Mela for the important bathing day of Maha Sankranti on January 14th, 2001 (when the sun enters the sign of Capricorn), which is supposed to be the third major bathing day (Shahi Snan) of Kumbha Mela. On this day it is said that around five million people bathed. The festival began on January 9th on Paush Purnima (full moon). The two other main days are Magha Purnima (full moon) on February 8th and Maha Sivaratri (appearance day of Lord Siva) on February 21.

My Favourite Found Fungi

Here are a number of mushrooms and fungi I have found over the years, mostly in Algonquin Park. There is a wide variety and I have taken hundreds of pictures, but here's just a sampling,

I really should write a sort of personal manifesto about why I love mushrooms so very much, but it would need to be updated far to frequently to make much sense. Instead, these images should suffice for now.

Walking Sculptures

Here is a wonderful TED talk I found. This artist is lovely to listen to discuss his work. He seems filled with a childlike wonder of his works.

Artist Theo Jansen demonstrates the amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures he builds from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His creatures are designed to move -- and even survive -- on their own.

A truly incredible combination of enginieering, art and wonder.

http://www.ted.com/talks/theo_jansen_creates_new_creatures.html

The Way

I just finished watching the new film The Way with my Dad.

There really aren't appropriate words to describe how it conveys the feeling of a pilgrimage. While the focus is not on the physicality of the journey, most the entire film was dedicated to establishing the weight of emotions and the development of spirituality along the way. Some of the pilgrims in the film started the journey as I had with mine; a basic idea of why, but with no clue as to how much the walk would mean in the end. When they reach Santiago de Compostella, the pilgrims find what they might not have even known what they were looking for, but what their spirits needed.

When you contemplate things as you do on a pilgrimage, your mind changes, your spirit develops. There are so many things that simply cannot be accounted for on journeys of that significance. I can only imagine the effort it would require to make a journey like the El Camino de Santiago, a journey of some 800km through northern Spain. I am absolutely certain that one day I must make a pilgrimage of similar magnitude, but again my reasons are uncertain.

That lack of knowing is the focus of my post right now. The uncertainty with which we begin many things in our lives. Sometimes not knowing why you have begun something can lead to the most beautiful experiences in your life. Imbuing a physical act with such potent spiritual ties is what pilgrimages are all about. It seems to me that to begin a pilgrimage with full understanding of what you hope to accomplish is somewhat contrary to their purpose in the first place.

People make pilgrimages for different reasons; some for penance, some for physical test, and some for religion. But one thing I believe all pilgrims have in common is discovery of one's self. You find out things you never knew about yourself when making journeys of such significance. You find reserves of strength you never felt possible before. You find out what is truly important in your life. The experiences you gain along the way are nothing compared to the aches in your feet, back, hips and knees. They are more than the blisters and the cracked lips and the windburn on your face. The sum of these experiences is transformative. They combine to create a depth of experience unlike many other on this earth.

To make a journey of such weight and importance is something I believe was essential in my life and in the lives of many others. These kinds of events transcend our physical limitation because they are more than a physical act. They are inherently spiritual and filled with self discovery.

A pilgrimage is an awakening.

Richard Long

I thought it was worth mentioning that the artist that informed my work and thinking over the semester the most has been Richard Long. I repeatedly visited his site and read text about his work for inspiration in my own works over the past few months. Here are some places for people to start if they liked Long's work as well...

video of a talk

BRUSHED PATH  A LINE IN NEPAL

A 21 DAY FOOTPATH WALK 1983

There are of course many more works that inspired me, and I would like to write more about Richard Long in coming posts, as well as the other artists I researched over the semester.

Pilgrimage route

I just wanted to take a little time to post the route that I traveled along for the Pilgrimage to Nana piece. As you can see the middle section is particularly straight and long, creating some trance inducing qualities.

The line of the route will actually make up a tattoo that I will be getting in the next few weeks, as a sort of drawn reminder of the action. This way I will always be present to explain this particular piece and will always remember the path I traveled for Nana.

Pilgrimage to Nana

Here is the final video that was shown during our critique. I intend to post a longer version as well, but as it stands, this is the final video work.

Thank you.

Walking on Water Fake

This was proven to be a fake by Mythbusters, but nonetheless it is a nice video.

Liquid Mountaineering

Reflection: October 30, 2011

This was my final day of walking. It was the most difficult markedly, but also the most rewarding. There were several points at which I thought I would not be able to complete the pilgrimage. However, the need to fulfill my task loomed greatly over me. I had to finish the walk as surely as one must find nourishment each day. In many ways, the pilgrimage was my nourishment; keeping my mind off bodily hunger and feeding my spirit driving me to succeed.

I knew early on that if there were any stops today and my forward motion was stalled, I would fail. Only once did I stop briefly to retrieve food from my pack and eat while continuing on my path.

When I saw the first tall buildings from Sarnia it signaled he closeness of Point Edward. This was definitely a morale boost for me. When I was walking through Sarnia to get to Point Edward, I was joined by my Dad. He walked with me for the last two or three kilometers to Nana's house. We discussed the journey and it really helped me to keep going and reach my goal.

My arrival at Nana's was bliss. I saw her for the first time in months. Most of her hair is gone now, and her demeanor has been softened by morphine. I couldn't help seeing her as she was though, she was my Nana and always would be. Nothing will ever change that.

Our visit was short, but meant the world to me. Both Nana and Papa were very proud of what I had done and they seemed to appreciate it deeply, perhaps more so than me. I am still more or less confused by the meaning of the pilgrimage to me. It was an interesting endeaveor to be sure, but there is much that needs to be resolved within me as yet to complete it.

They knew what I had done though and that I love them. Now, I've proven that to myself as well.

Reflection: October 29, 2011

(Re written from pilgrimage journal)

My second day of walking was a surprise. The first few steps were painful as I had expected,, then when my body warmed up I really got into the rhythm of walking again.This day had no turns save for a short 180 meter jag at Forest Road. The path was straight and undeviating. It was daunting. Upon reaching Fisher Line I hit a definite wall mentally and physically. However, I was able to push through for another hour and a half of walking before my checkpoint of the day.

There were various points of interest during the walk today. There were two dogs who followed me for a number of kilometers and kept good company while they were alongside me after their initial displeasure at my arrival. Later, they got into a minor scuffle with some other farm dogs and decided to turn around and return home.

The hardest part of the day was the three or four kilometer incline that I had to ascend after passing a sugar beet harvest. Again the physically daunting task loomed over me though I was able to climb up and over this obstacle.

Along the road I passed a crippled bird. I had contemplated various actions including taking it with me to attempt to heal its wing, even the thought of a mercy killing crossed my mind. My indecision as nearly as crippling to me as the birds wing was to it. I decided to go on and leave the bird; after all, I was not meant to intervene with nature on this pilgrimage and I know almost nothing of birds unfortunately.

It seemed almost as if I was being tested with these things I was seeing along my path. The dead dear and the dying bird. Maybe it could be seen as over analysis, but I think they somehow helped me to come to terms with my grandmother's terminal illness and the unrelenting passage of time in nature. The frailty of life.

Reflection: October 28, 2011

(Re written from pilgrimage journal)

Many times today I questioned the purposes of this walk. What is its purpose other than to arrive at my destination? If that was the only reason for going, then why hadnt I decided just to drive instead?


The longer I walked, the more it made sense somehow. It means more that I am doing this in order to see her rather than taking the easy way out. In the same way buying indulgences is the easy way out of sin, driving would have been the easy way out for this journey. The pilgrimage holds a greater purpose than other methods of travel. It serves as a sort of penance for what has transpired.

I am putting myself to the test, to measure my body's endurance and its relevance in love of my grandmother. It may not make much sense to anyone else, or indeed to myself yet, but I am hoping that its purpose becomes clear during the walk and perhaps after I arrive at Nana's.

Aching Feet

Hi everyone,

So I just wanted to let you know that I made it! I arrived in Point Edward at my Nana's house around 4:15pm on Sunday October 30th. The last day of my pilgrimage was easily the most daunting, both physically and mentally. I will be posting relevant information on the blog in some consequent posts. Just wanted to update the status to completed.

I would say that it was made safely, but that would be a lie. I greatly underestimated the arduousness of the journey and my body is not in a very functional state right now. My feet are in miserable shape, covered in blisters and they were bleeding by the time I arrived in Point Edward. The pain paled in comparison to the mental barriers I passed along the way and everything was made acceptable upon my arrival.

Feet after cleaning...they were bloody before

I walked roughly 30 kilometers a day in 6 hour stretches with one 15 minute break on the first two days. The third day was made in one straight shot because I was fearful that any sort of break would alter my momentum and I would not have been able to finish. Overall, the ordeal was worth it, as I was able to finally have time to visit with my grandmother.

More to come shortly.
Much love

Initial Jitters

So I've decided that for my final walk I will be making a pilgrimage from my family home in Denfield Ontario, which is north of London to Point Edward, just beside Sarnia. The pilgrimage from my home to my destination will be roughly 90 km. It will take an estimated 18 hours of walking at a decent pace. The reason for this pilgrimage is to see my Nana. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer in the summer, and given months as an expected limit to her time left alive. While at school there is almost no time to go home let alone get to Sarnia to see her. Besides, my grandmother is quite stubborn and won't tell us much about her illness. I want to go and see her, potentially for the last time. Over the past few years at University I have grown increasingly distant from my grandparents, but I love them deeply and want them to know that. I doubt that Nana would condone this pilgrimage...in fact I imagine she would be opposed to it for safety reasons. But I am going to do this.

It is a frightening prospect in some ways, walking 90 kilometres in solitude along back roads so as to not get caught for hitchhiking accidentally. I don't necessarily think that people will understand why I am doing this, especially my own family. Pilgrimages are a personal matter. I want to do this for me, and I want to do this for Nana. I don't know what I will find on the way to Point Edward, and whether it will be good, bad, angering or painful. I might have life altering revelations or just end up with sore feet. Either way, this is something I must do and am both excited for and apprehensive about. As I sit here typing, my back is sore and I am just getting over a bad cold. Hopefully I can muster the strength to get through this pilgrimage to my goal. I can't wait to stand there at Nana's house on Michigan Ave. and tell her that I love her, and that the walk was worth every step.

Hiking Presentation and Reflection

I would firstly encourage you to take a look at my Prezi presentation which I presented in September. What follows is also my detailed response to the reading assignment.

http://prezi.com/217sea5jyw6l/the-truth-about-hiking/

Hiking


Hiking is an activity with a strong prominence in developed countries in North America and Europe mostly because of the prevalence of the "back to nature" movements in these areas. Hiking is also emerging in other places around the world, but the readings mostly focus on the regions mentioned before.

Hiking in forms reminiscent of those in practice today first emerged in Britain according to my readings. This story began with the Norman invasion in 1066, when the conquerors set aside massive tracts of land for private deer hunting. Ever since then there have been severe penalties for breaking land regulations and trespassing or poaching. After centuries, there was a group of privileged land owners ruling the land.  They dominated ownership of nearly all the land and began walking as a way of enjoying their assets. During the industrial revolution, floods of people migrated to the cities for the work and capitalist prospects that lie there. They soon realized the horrors of industrial city living, the squalor and densely populated living areas were suffocating. People began to yearn for open spaces of the past, and so they began to wandering in the country to escape their urban woes.

Politics. Different areas of the world have had unique experiences with hiking and its political ramifications. In many areas hiking has been much more political than people realize when first contemplating the subject. Suffice to say, my eyes were opened by the socialist and activistic aspects of this action of bodies in motion.

The Alps. Hiking politics here began with the Naturfreunde (Nature Friends), as an anti monarchist socialist movement advocating access to the mountain wilderness for working people. In the late 1800s and early 1900s there was a golden age of utopian groups, perhaps spurred on by growing interest in Marx's communism. These groups were often centred around the idea of walking and its uses as a tool for social change. These utopian groups were founded as oppositions to mainstream society and strongly advocated for recreational time and public access to the healing powers of nature. These ideals were largely dismantled by the Nazi regime in condemnation of socialist ideals. However, the Nazis did take the organization of these groups and use it for their own ends. Youth groups known as Wandervogels were later incorporated in to Nazi structures because they were an effective means of organizing young people in ways that were already in use and comfortably accepted by them. The ideals of the Wandergovels were exploited by the Nazis to control the minds of young people and subtly instill new belief systems. These sort of organized youth movements were also the basis of the Scouting organization, which was inspired and created mostly by Sir Baden Powell (more strict and militaristically regimented) and Canadian Ernest Thompson Seton ( the more holistic of the two, deeply interested in Native American skills and world views). Overall we see in the Alps regions a yearning for access to public spaces and an ensuing fight for these rights, followed by subsequent corruption of ideals and re appropriation of belief systems.


North America. In North America, the Sierra Club was a major force in creating green spaces for recreational purposes. It began as a small walking club with interests in the natural, untouched world. Walking in nature became virtuous to this group, a sort of righteous defence of the environment. The Sierra Club published authentic information about the areas they were most interested in as a way of raising public awareness of the ecological issues and to garner support for preservation efforts. The founder, John Muir, took a stand against anthropocentric views of nature and he strongly pushed for large areas of land being left wild and untouched. The only activity he would allow seemingly was human recreational activity meant to increase the cultural love of nature. The group was progressive in that it was very accepting of women and their status of equality. Women were not only allowed to join, but were treated with equity and slept outside, performed tasks with the others and hiked with the best of them. After it became clear that some hikers were abusing their rights of access by polluting, Muir advocated for protection of ecosystems from recreational degradation as well. The Sierra Club was the first major force of environmental protection in the United States, and truly made hiking into a political battle to save the environment. Areas were and are still pushed forward for recreational use, but also for sustainability and ecological protection. This is an effort I have learned about personally in classes regarding environmental issues stemming from tourism. One major issue persists to this day - equating love of nature with outdoor leisure activities. It turns out that hiking isn't a universally indicative characteristic of love of nature, in fact some hikers are selfish and damaging. We must see hiking as a culturally specific term, and as an activity it has been mainly enjoyed by middle class people with time and financial means to engage in it.


Britain. This is a country where walking has not been transformed into some other form of adventure; the only country that is as such. It has remained much as it began. Walking in Britain is indicative of a class war. Known widely as "rambling", it is immensely popular and borders on spirituality or even religion with the amount of cultural weight it carries. This is where the history of walking sprang out of inequality and class struggles. During the industrial revolution, residents of the cities needed cleaner more open spaces. However, most of the land in Britain was (and is) privately owned and forbidden to trespassing and general public access. So, many groups were formed to represent the working people and their desire for open spaces. Walking became a political action about trespassing for the sake of breaking down notions of private ownership over that which should rightfully be public space. The "rambling movement" took leadership over the struggle for access and mass trespassing put severe pressure on the government to change land laws. They were eventually successful in forcing the government to mandate landowners to prove that right-of-way did not exist rather than the public having to prove that it did. Proving that right-of-way does not exist is much more difficult and thus a major battle was won for the ramblers. I find it highly ironic that the recreational walking of people in Britain now historically stems from the practices of the aristocratic upper class of land owners. The rambler's actions ended up as an assault on the absolute right to private ownership of land. The struggle continues, but the British public is slowly gaining access to previously private land.


Hiking and the Environment. Walking takes place irrespective of borders and property lines. It is an antithetical statement to ownership and a socialist anti-capialist action. Long have nomadic peoples troubled the ideals of nationalism because they migrate as a lifestyle and observe no borders that determine where they can go.
Hiking does have many implications that many people forget in their heedless lust for physical activity and apparent love of wild spaces. Many papers have discussed the ecological side affects that hiking activities have, such as Lynn and Brown's 2003 paper about the effects of recreational hiking in natural areas. These findings aren't surprising to myself as a camper and hiker, I have had many years of seeing overused trails resulting in trail widening, trail erosion and muddiness accompanied by tree and plant damage, fire rings, and the ever present litter left carelessly beside paths. These symptoms of environmental degradation stem from the anthropocentric worldview that nature exists for our use and abuse, in this case through the acts of ecotourism. There must be an adoption of the mindset that nature is a blessing we are given, yes to be enjoyed, but also to be respected and treated with the utmost of care.

Enjoying the outdoors is something that I find exhilarating and that many hold close because of cultural ties. Hiking is a means by which to connect to our world in ways we cannot normally do in our day to day lives in cities. However, it has also proved to be an activity and a tool used for cultural and social change. We must respect this act and use it with care, but in an ecological and political sense.

Thanks,
Paul

List of Inspirational Walking Films

The Way Back***- group of prisoners from the Gulag Archipelago escape and walk 4000 miles to India

Lawrence of Arabia- British Officer in  Arabia who helps coordinate the Arab revolt against the Turks in WWI whilst dealing with his internal conflicts of loyalty. There are many arduous treks in this film.

"My Playground" documentary from class

Defiance- a group of Jews in Belarus try living in the woods to escape Nazism's death grip on Europe, but are forced out when they are discovered

The Edge- two men struggling to return home from a plane crash in Alaska whilst being chased by a Kodiak bear

Lord of the Rings- for those of you who have for some reason never heard of the story. Frodo the halfling must walk across Middle Earth and beyond his own known world of the Shire to bring the One Ring back to Mordor to be destroyed. This is the only place where it can be destroyed and once and for all defeat the seemingly immortal powers of Sauron.

Wizard of Oz

The Dark Crystal

The Neverending Story

Forrest Gump

Four Feathers

Otis and Milo- for the puppy and kitten lovers among you

The Road- a darker film about the post apocalyptic future. A man and his son must make it to the coast and follow the road to imagined safety.

The Book of Eli- similarly post apocalyptic to the Road, but with a more involved plotline.

This list is meant to be an ongoing compilation of films about walks, especially journeys of great importance.

A movie to check out

There is a film that I checked out a few months ago when I was working for the summer in landscaping. The piece is called "The Way Back", and came out in January 2011. It is a true story about a group of prisoners from the Gulag Archipelago in Siberia who manage to escape and actually walk south 4000 miles to get to India. This story illustrates the indomitable will of the group as they walk, often malnourished and thirsty through deserts, plains, mountains, swamps and beaches.

I found that this film was especially motivational for me in the context of our walking class because I knew that a pilgrimage was what I wanted for the final assignment. While nowhere near as daunting as the journey undertaken by these men and the woman they encounter along the way, I feel a deep connection to long walks and the purifying qualities that they possess.

Many of the group that began the journey did not make it all the way to the end of the road. Those that did were changed irrevocably by the trials they underwent along the way. They were put to the test and they survived; they were stronger people for it. This film is the one I will recommend most strongly to our class due to its arduous nature, but there is a list I am compiling of my favourite journey movies.

Cleansing Walk

Tonight I took a walk. As any of those who went outside this evening will know, it pissed rain. My original intent was to just get a breather from the stress of assignments at this point in the semester. However, what I received was more of a full body cleansing. I was outside for about half an hour, without a rain jacket or umbrella...not like they would have done much good with the torrent that took place. Its interesting how physical ordeals can leave you feeling refreshed and clean, with a new perspective on things. When I got back to my room, the feeling slowly returned to my numb and cold extremities. I went to work on the essay which was the original "final straw" that drove me outside. I found that everything fell into place and was finished within the hour.

Physical cleansing seems like a good enough reason in itself to go for a walk. Despite the shortness of my outing, I caught a glimpse of the positive aspects of a pilgrimage. The benefits come after you're finished. After the ordeal is complete you are left feeling new and somehow lighter.

At least that's how I felt.

A night lost in the woods

I just got home from a truly strange experience. I went into the arboretum tonight for a walk and my flashlight burnt out. I was far enough into an area I didn't know of to feel quite disoriented. I decided to keep walking without the light to try and get back home. Before long I was scrambling through the forest, with dense brush pulling at me from every side, scratching my face. I felt really lost in as small a forest as the arboretum...not a positive thing. Paranoia and fear were flooding through me for reasons I can't explain, my childhood fears had returned. I was afraid of the dark, like I always had been when I was younger. All the night sounds of the arboretum were permeating the air; the crush of falling branches distantly in the woods, the far off road and cars flying along on it, and many other imagined sounds joined in the dark atmosphere. It was strange for me to have such profound fear in such a controlled area, not really remote or wild in the least. Generally I don't admit my phobias, but I feel like it more reflective of the journey I took tonight in the forest.

I would like to say as well that I have been wandering at night with no lights before in the arboretum, but then there was a moon. Tonight is crisp, cool and clear, perfect for stargazing and getting hopelessly lost. Through the absence of the light of the moon, fearful emotions dominated this walk and stay with me as I write this before going to sleep.

After the Mushroom Foray

The mushroom foray we went on was a really nice break from the normal classes of the week and definitely was something to look forward to. Such a pleasant time just stumbling through the forest with eyes wide open trying to find one of the things I love most ~mushrooms. It was bliss.

On another note...When we all were headed back home and back to campus most of the group got lifts back in cars. Cassie and I decided to walk back through the publicly accessible arboretum on the north side of Stone - across from where we held the foray.

The walk we had was full of interesting moments. We had a difficult time of finding the path through the forest, but were in no real rush (the best possible case for walks). Once we had found a path through some fairly thick brush, we stumbled upon a small lake with an island at the center. It was dead calm and the reflection of the other sides was nearly perfect on the glassy surface. A little further down the path we found a large patch of mushrooms, meters and meters across; a far larger grouping than we had found earlier. Lastly, we were walking along and saw through the brush two white tailed deer. We stared quietly at them as they stared back. They slowly turned to walk away and we followed, our paths parallel to theirs. The deer stalked through the forest for some time and we decided after a while to leave them be. Continuing along the path through the arboretum we eventually found the boardwalk that leads back to the entrance near East Residences.

I can honestly say that what we encountered on the short walk back home was unexpected, but I'm certainly glad Cassie and I decided to take a way home that neither of us was familiar with. Those kinds of walks tend to be the most rewarding.
This is a video of the deer we found along the path.

Bare

my feet, slightly less dirty after the rain

Today was admittedly a first for me. I mean, there has been times when Ive gone bare footed to be sure, but not for the entire waking day and certainly not while at school or in professional meetings.

This morning I guess the thought just crossed my mind that it might be fun to go a day without footwear; see how it felt, imagine what other people with no shoes must feel, to see if people noticed and just because it was looking beautiful outside. I started out with a meeting with my manager. She didn't notice until I got up to leave, she simply laughed and told me "typical Eco House move Paul". Mildred basically set the tone for the rest of the day as people commented on my lack of footwear. "Missing something?", "Doesn't it hurt?", and "You can't be in here without shoes" are some comments that immediately spring to mind. Of course there were some points during the walk at which I stepped on a stone or sharp crack in the pavement and it was momentarily uncomfortable. However, looking back, it was totally worth it.

After dinner, around 9:35pm, I went for another walk. This time through the arboretum...it was pouring. It wasn't as easy to see the ground this time, at night in the heavy deluge. However, it was very satisfying. The rain was not terribly cold like I half expected, but refreshing in a way. It cleaned the dirt off from the day's rambling and left me feeling refreshed and cleansed, if a little damp. This last walk of the day was a rather fitting conclusion in my mind.

It might sound silly, but I feel more aware of the textures of the campus, more in tune with the feeling of the ground. When your feet have nothing to encumber them there is more to experience, more to feel and it seems like there's more to life. You become acutely aware of where you shouldn't walk because of potential harm, where the feelings are pleasant and where they are not. This was a sort of off hand decision this morning, but it really turned into an eye opening experience. Going barefoot at home might just feel like giving your feet a breath of fresh air, but going bare for an entire day really transformed my idea of campus as well as the way I relate to my feet. Walking connects us to the environment and so changing a small aspect of the walking experience changes how we feel and see our world. Bare feet did just that for me.

Sitting here at the end of the day, my feet slightly numb with the built up sensations felt throughout today, I sit contented. I highly recommend it to all of you.

The Way Home

Today I decided upon a roundabout route home from a stroll through the Edinburgh woods. Listening to the Antlers on shuffle had prompted me to try something a little different; I wanted to have some fun. When the trees parted, the massive shopping complex containing the Canadian Tire, Futureshop and Zellers came into view. It was the latter most that caught my attention. It reminded me of a game my friend had once played in a Wal-Mart back home. So, I decided it was time to play a game of my own.

Upon entering the large department store, I went to home supplies and began rearranging items. This rearranging was not meant to turn into a sculpture or provoke any sort of societal commentary; I was trying to blend into the store as yet another young person working there....potentially as a "lifer". Then I was approached. Not by another employee, as they were busy texting their friends and discussing alternative means of employment. I was approached by a customer. This had happened to my friend back home whilst in a Wal-Mart doing the exact same thing; so I followed the advice he had so awkwardly bestowed upon me. I looked at the customer in the eye for a few seconds; it was an elderly woman wearing a blue sweater. I then preceded to spin in circles.

The woman stared at me for several more seconds, then began asking if I was alright. After about thirty or so seconds of inquiry into my well being, the thoroughly agitated woman turned around and walked away. Success. This game carried on through the next hour and a half and four people. One, a young mother and her little boy, two a middle aged man looking for the plungers, three a younger man about my age wondering where the shavers were and finally by another employee. Apparently I had been found out.

When the other Zellers employee approached me I was made aware of several complaints that had been made about me and my incessant spinning. As such, there was only one thing I could do. I spun as I had before. The employee stormed off shortly after, notifying me that I would be reported to the manager. After they had left I decided it was in my best interest to return home and start making soup for dinner.

Unfortunately, the whole thing was rather coincidental and I did not have my camera with me. I did however bought the loveliest glade spray can before I left. Clean Linen.

And that was how I got home today.