I love to walk and run, it is a great way to not only get out and see places but also to get away from others. The escape is not just about the physical aspect of enjoying the environment and fresh air, it is also about the thoughts and feelings experienced as I move through the spaces I’m exploring.
During my walks and runs emotions, thoughts and memories are evoked by the sights, smells and sounds around me.
The time I spend roaming the cliffs and countryside is a time for reflection and a conscious contact with the physical movement of my body through the great outdoors. The sweet sensation of freedom and space reminds me of my connection with the energy that flows through everything.
The horizon is my place of contemplation and inspiration, a view that gives me a glimpse at the infinity of our existence, making me conscious of what and who we are.
In the act of walking in the mountains, deserts, forests, through constant movement, in coping with wind, rain, snow, cold, fatigue, it becomes possible, Drury argues, to reach a state in which the inner and outer realities become a ‘fluid whole’.
Taking refuge from the bigness of open spaces in a small, cocooned shelter is the opposite of allowing the mountains to stretch you outside yourself beyond the next horizon. It is in this space and movement between the two that insight becomes possible.
Kay Syrad
(Drury, C (1998) Silent Spaces. London: Thames and Hudson)
