I didn’t know that about the inner ear and gravity. There are so many ways we are connected to this earth that are so subtle that we really have to pay attention to notice. That’s the project, I think, to pay attention.
But why do I say “pay”? Transactional language comes to us automatically, without thinking. Our use of language is something else we have to be more intentional about. As they say, if we want to change the world, we have to begin by changing the language we use to describe it. The rest will follow.
Yes! It's the vestibular system. I wrote about it in my book on walking (which is a combination of evolutionary biology, humans health, social capital, etc.). I never thought about it before researching walking, but we're on a spinning planet, so as we traverse it, our bodies have to account for gravitational pull or else we'd just fall over. The vestibular system in the inner ear does that. I notice its effects most if I get strong vertigo, like if I'm skiing in thick fog and lose sense of up and down.
And I am totally with you on the language. I'm glad you brought up "pay attention" because that one's been bugging me for a while. If you have a replacement I'd love to hear it. I've been using "attend to" a lot but it still feels transactional.
Good essay. I took up street photography to help me concentrate and pay attention on my walks. I find that, although walking takes time, it also makes time, or at least slows it down and stretches it out. And it changes the scale of things. You discover that, like points of light in the sky, small things contain galaxies. A single breath is a warm breeze. Your swinging arms keep the clouds moving. And when you realise that your stride, pulling the ground towards you with each step, is helping the earth to rotate, giving us the seasons, you have all the reasons you need to keep walking.
Street photography is such a great idea. I should think about that a little more. I usually take photos when I'm walking -- originally for my Instagram, now just to use here -- but don't think about it quite so intentionally.
I LOVE that, about slowing down and stretching out time. Like walking itself! Or spending time with starlight in the early morning. "And when you realise that your stride, pulling the ground towards you with each step, is helping the earth to rotate, giving us the seasons, you have all the reasons you need to keep walking." YES. So beautiful. (Incidentally, the way that our inner ear system responds to the gravitational pull of the earth is one of the most fascinating things in the world to me.)
It is such a pleasure and a privilege to be able to listen to your recordings of these posts. It brings you closer to my neighborhood, so to speak. You talked of burning sweetgrass, which I did not know about. I was only familiar with braiding it, as in the book titled "Braiding Sweetgrass". What a lovely meditation. The longer I live, the more I wish to discard what I really can of this highly-mechanized society and retreat to a quieter life to work with my hands. My brain is tired.
Sweetgrass is burned in ceremonies and for other purposes, and in some medicines. I'm not deeply familiar with all the uses and they're not my traditions to speak of, but many peoples have a relationship it.
And I am WITH you. The more I go offline, the more I want to be there, and away from all the rest of it. Too much of this world wears us all out. 🧡
Writing definitely is one of these things. Pretty much everything worth doing is a lot of work and inefficient and anti-capitalist and what makes life worth living.
Oct 27, 2023·edited Oct 27, 2023Liked by Antonia Malchik
Personally, I think the continued ramping up of information and discourse and reading material at our fingertips, next to our very finite and unchanging capacity to process it, has made reading feel more difficult even as it appears like it should be easier. It was cool to hear this post read out loud.
One of the many reasons I've never owned a car is that I'm sort of afraid that if I did, I would grow accustomed to using a car and less accustomed to walking places. Even with the best of intentions, you're right; it does take effort to live intentionally and resist the choice architecture. For me it takes a lot less effort to just not have a car which restricts a lot of options, but makes other options more visible. Most people don't have that luxury, though. And I've always lived in walking cities. This summer I was in the Twin Cities for about 5 weeks which is both a great place for walking, and weirdly car-centric: lots of neat neighborhoods and parks and paths, but the public transportation isn't great and the light rail in particular has become so unregulated and unsafe that most people told me to never ride it after 7 pm (I rode it anyway). The one suburb I spent any time in was a walking wasteland.
You know, I honestly hadn't thought about how the presentation of reading material is making it more difficult. Or maybe I had but not quite in those terms. I have often wondered if we should give more attention to, say, the effects on our eyesight of so much screen-looking time. I find that if I've been working on my computer and then go read a book, my attention is jumpier but it's really because my eyes keep skipping around.
I'm glad the audio worked!
My spouse grew up in England with parents who never owned a car or learned to drive. I taught him to drive when he was 30 (not recommended with a partner, I have to say). It was and continues to be astonishing to me how much more he wants to drive than I do. Not just long distances, but, say, downtown even when it's often faster to walk than to drive there and try to find parking. You really *do* adapt.
"Resisting the choice architecture" is a great way to put it. It's more difficult where I live because there's no public transit, but when I got to a city and ride the buses instead of getting an Uber or a Lyft, I get a lot of comments from people, especially if I'm visiting friends.
Speaking of which, I lived in St. Paul for 4 years (for college) and have many friends there. I was visiting some a few years ago when the light rail was relatively new and it was so exciting to me, whereas my friends could not fathom my looking up the walk-to-bus-to-rail schedules when I could just use their car. You're not the first person who's told me about the decline of the light rail. It's really disappointing.
I worked for a non-profit one summer where I had to go door-knocking for petitions and donations. Always in those upper-class Twin Cities suburbs because that was where the money was. Very weird thing to be walking for hours in the heat in a wealthy places not at all designed for walking. "Wasteland" is right.
I was thinking both of the impact of screens on how we engage with text and reading material, and more generally the cognitive overload from too much information and potential material to parse. It's like having to juggle infinity with your fingertips (but pressing down instead of throwing up).
St. Paul is where I was staying too, and I really liked the neighborhoods there. But the light rail on University Ave. goes through some bombed-out stretches (apparently they never recovered from the riots in 2020), and I must say the situation on the trains is the worst I've seen on any public transport. The city has clearly opted to stop regulating or supervising the trains; perhaps a hands-off strategy after Black Lives Matter, or maybe just entropy? I don't know. But I rode it probably 40 times, and *no one* pays, ever. Maybe that's good to have it free by default, but literally didn't see a single employee or security person in 5 weeks. Well over 50% of the people riding look like they're in a pretty bad way, including many homeless and disabled, usually one person behaving eccentrically or talking to themselves, drug deals in open view, etc. Of course in New York or Boston or Philly you have the same; the difference is that everyone else still rides too. In M-SP I got the feeling that anyone with means just stays away.
I never saw the rich suburbs - only Oakdale on the eastern edge - and rural places like Montana are a totally different ball of wax. But I have spent plenty of time in fancy suburbs elsewhere (esp. Connecticut and DC), and am always struck by how messed up and unnatural that culture feels; I really believe it's the source of many of our national pathologies. But all the visible symptoms show up in the cities instead.
The cognitive overload is mind-boggling, literally AND figuratively. How do we even begin to make choices on where to send our attention? The idea of some kind of workable decision tree feels laughable. I tend to focus on my research areas and my values and try to keep content corralled in there, but it would take somewhere between 4 and 10 of me to keep up even with what feels like the most essential info.
I don't know what happened to the light rail but that is really a bummer. It's definitely not a place where public transportation has ever been widely used, but when I think of how hard some underserved communities fought to get stops and service when they were building it, it's pretty heartbreaking.
You are so right about suburbs. I read a ton about them when I was researching my walking book, because they're integral to the building of the interstate highway system, and it's pretty depressing how much pathology is frankly just baked into the infrastructure. And on top of all of that maintaining it is way more expensive than most people realize. I heard Chuck Marohn from Strong Towns say that it takes municipalities an average of about 100 years of property tax collection to pay off what they have to spend providing roads and services to most suburbs and subdivisions. He wasn't optimistic about the realities of upkeep within the next 30-50 years.
That sounds gorgeous! I can start a Chat thread of Moon or other photos this week. Everyone can share photos in the Chat, which is one nice thing about it. It's about the level of social media exchange I can handle. 😂
I don’t think you have to use the app? I don’t have the app. I used to but deleted it when they launched Notes. I just access Chat through my web browser.
your writing is a balm. i loved listening to it with the interjections and context of your environment. thank you for taking the time write and record it, especially in a place so lovely and meaningful.
That is so kind. Thank you! And I will try to keep doing the recordings. I have a number of friends and family members whose neurodiversity can make reading hard, or who find their attention just shattered, so it feels important to offer the option. Stories are stories, in whatever form. :)
Such a wonderful essay, thank you. I listened to it first -- so that I could play with my cat at the same time -- and then read it again.
I love how your curiosity is awakened during the course of the walk -- that happens to me too. I think it’s not just that we see the world more clearly as we walk, though that’s true, but also maybe we set the pace of our thoughts? Maybe by traveling faster in a car we have faster, more efficient thoughts -- good for making lists and ticking things off, but not so great for curiosity & expansiveness. Just a theory. 🤷♀️ Thanks again!
I would always put playing with a cat as a top priority. 🐱 Glad this could keep you both company!
Honestly, I think the thought-paces and even what comes up are real things. Even my own walking pace can change what I'm thinking and how. Like if I'm running late somewhere and walking really fast, I notice I get more stressed and start running through anxieties, whereas if I slow down, I'll be less stressed, even though I know I'm gettin later. But I hadn't thought about how that might change according to car pace versus walking pace, that's a great insight. Especially the making lists and ticking things off, which I definitely do more of on long drives.
This is so beautiful to read, especially right now. I too have been giving attention to Moon and Venus and stars, constellations who return like old friends, astounded that I had forgotten how bright they are in a cold almost-winter sky. And this: "Life asks us, constantly, to take a little more time, make a little more effort, give a little more attention. Not just for the rest of life’s sake, but for humans’ own." If only we could encourage everyone to pay attention as you do, as others here do. What kind of world it could be if we greeted Moon, walked as a ritual act of attention. 💜
I have to admit that, very selfishly, though I look forward to winter and the longer periods of dark here anyway, I've been looking to your posts from further north as we move into winter. I've never been to Alaska, but you bring me there all the time and I enjoy it in all the seasons.
ah i love that. feel the same about montana--can’t believe i’ve never been there and my partner is headed there for a conference this week! 😢 i told him to send me pictures but one day i’ll get there and come bug y’all. 😂
Nia, many thanks as always. I needed this essay this week. “Why should any of us assume the world right in front of us, broken as the dominant culture has tried to make it, is less worthy of attention?” Indeed. 🙏🏻❤️
Definitely thought of you both during the walk and the writing of it, Greg. One of the few things I miss from Instagram is your regular photos of daily walks!
Nia, are you noticing anything happening in the 'woodwide web' (mycorrhizal mat underlying the natural world) this year? On the meandering footpaths (no roads allowed here, none) knitting this place where I live along the JOCKO river, I notice an utterly amazing array of mushrooms of all kinds, shapes and sizes (from tiny to plates). I don't know enough to gobble any up, but am delighted to enjoy their exhuberance as they poke their way through various soils and obstacles. I've lived on this 20 acre holding on Salish-Pend d'Oreille land for nearly 30 years and have never seen anything like it. My hit is that this mat is a harbinger of nature's response to the humans' desecration of her world. Mycorrhizals are fascinating creatures who humans who study them like Merlin Sheldrake, "Entangled Life," are amazed by.
Well, I don't know enough about all the fungus, but it does seem to me that this year's visible mushrooms are showing far more than I've seen before. Even in my garden, they're all over the place a lot of varieties. Maybe I'm just noticing them more this year? But if you've been paying attention all these years and it seems different, maybe there is something going on. But in any case, yes, it's been very noticeable in all the places I've been walking and sitting this year. I don't know enough to eat them, either, though my dad and stepmom do. I wish I could bring them out with me more!
I have that book on my big pile of to-read and really should get to it sooner rather than later.
I just love your reflections - as someone else said they’re soothing like a long walk! I do not live in a walkable part of our city and it makes me so sad - no sidewalks in my neighborhood, no walking the kids to school, and my youngest uses a wheelchair so accessibility is always top of mind 💔 I think I’ll try biking somewhere this week though, it’s been on my mind and this seems like good motivation. Especially before it gets too cold!
Also my husband works in public transit and I’m going to share this with him! 🩷
Cheers to your husband! The one thing I'm actively proud of in my life is having raised two people who are enthusiastic proponents of public transit. When I take them to a city and one of them says, "Why don't we just take the bus?" to wherever we're going, I want to cheer. (Especially my younger one well after midnight in Las Vegas, and especially because there is zero public transportation where we live.)
Accessibility is HUGE. I'm glad you mentioned this. When I wrote about walking in my book, I wanted to address that in the introduction and described the way I think about it as being "as present in the world as is possible for each individual person." Two of my closest family members use wheelchairs, so it always really bugs me that most walking books don't talk about this. But my friend Jonathan Stalls, who does tons of walking advocacy and came out with a book last year titled "Walk," consistently says "walking or rolling" instead and I think that's probably a better approach.
Have you ever been to Holland? People always post pictures of the bike paths and massive bike use, which is very cool, but what struck me there several years ago was how many people I saw out in wheelchairs. Because they build the infrastructure with accessibility in mind. I keep working on getting my city to use universal design standards when planning paths and interactions and everything else. I don't need to tell you it's an uphill battle. Very frustrating. But worth advocating for. 🩷
I will say, I noticed (and appreciated) your intentional language in your intro! Walking books don’t always consider it, but also nature advocates in general! There are so many groups (1000 hrs outside for example) and nature preK meetups or homeschool groups in our area and none of them prioritize accessibility. Thankfully our metroparks have attempted to grow in this area over the last several years but it is still a struggle.
I haven’t been to Holland but that makes so much sense about their infrastructure. We have a few bike lanes popping up in our city but not enough to make it feel safe for chairs too. My husbands also on City council though, so hopefully one day! 😂😅
That is so true! The nature/environmental world as a whole seems to steer clear of any engagement with accessibility. And when it does happen, it's so often a blunt instrument of "well do we need to just pave everything," which is frustrating. There is a great organization here called DREAM Adaptive that I've worked with a few times, and one of the things they do as part of their outreach work is advise on things like new mountain biking trails so that they're accessibility-informed rather than imposed.
Can you imagine if city councils and planning boards and so on were peopled by transit and accessibility and racial and environmental justice advocates and and and ... oh wait, I'm thinking of utopia! Seriously, kudos to your husband. That is NOT easy work but it's vital that good people who care do that community engagement. (She says, preaching to the choir.)
Nia! I've wanted to suggest that you read your essays in a podcast for a while, but haven't because I didn't want to suggest that you "do another thing". What an unexpected surprise to listen to this post! You have a great reading voice. Thanks for doing the extra thing. And I love that it is recorded outside. +1 vote for recording each one in a different piece of public land that you love.
I think you've mentioned it before but I never had the capacity to approach it! I wanted to start with the introduction to No Trespassing, but was so busy at the time I couldn't even get my head around it. Plus a bit of a confidence thing -- I like doing public speaking, but recording feels awkward. Doing it outside was partly realizing that that's where I feel most relaxed and myself anyway, and it helped.
I might go back and do the book introduction, and was thinking of taking it to one of my favorite creeks, so we might be on the same wavelength re recording these in public lands spaces! Even if you lose out on train horns and random neighbors driving by. 😂
There are podcast genres that I would complain to if I heard background noise. But, for what you are doing, the little notes about being in the garden and the neighbor's son driving by were totally on brand. Heck, if a trail rolled by and you went off script to talk over the noise about whatever it makes you think of, it would not damage the final product :D Go for it. You are doing great!
I should go do it at the train depot when Amtrak is scheduled to roll in. There's something about hearing that bell and watching it head out that gives you that "I could just hop on and go ... anywhere" chill. Not exactly like being in a European train station where the world feels at your footsteps when you look at the departure board, but a similar kind of thrill.
Thank you for writing, Antonia. I love these vignettes into your musings and your explorations.
The lines that stood out most to me are: "The very tools we use to 'access nature' are directly complicit in making existence so difficult and tenuous for all of life. Why should any of us assume the world right in front of us, broken as the dominant culture has tried to make it, is less worthy of attention?"
This strikes at one of my core grievances--our highly commercialized and mechanized outdoor recreation culture, or what Edward Abbey referred to as "industrial tourism." I've always thought of our wildlands as sacred places, to be traversed and enjoyed with respect and reverence, and with the lightest footprint humanly possible. And to your point, why would we not extend that same sentiment to the nature within our midst, taking only what we need, enjoying the beauty that, if we have eyes to see, is everywhere around us, and doing so with gratefulness and reciprocity instead of burning fossil fuels to visit what amounts to a human-centric nature museum?
This subject came up in a discussion on the War on Cars podcast's Patreon feed, the difficulty they have seen with environmental advocates getting involved (that is, not getting involved) in advocacy around freeing us from cars. Because it's integral, isn't it? There aren't many places you can go for a hike that don't require driving, so not many are willing to take that on.
I've been in a few respectful disagreements recently about allowing bicycles in wilderness areas. It's not about preserving some European myth of "wilderness," but it is about that respect you talk about, about not using nature for our own thrill or excitement, and also about the very few places there are in the world for a human being to just wander around being a human body. I walk a lot of trails that are shared with mountain bikers, and really nothing about it is very pleasant.
I haven't read that poem in years. Maybe not even since high school. He knew a thing or two, didn't he? Thank you for reminding me. 🧡
I didn’t know that about the inner ear and gravity. There are so many ways we are connected to this earth that are so subtle that we really have to pay attention to notice. That’s the project, I think, to pay attention.
But why do I say “pay”? Transactional language comes to us automatically, without thinking. Our use of language is something else we have to be more intentional about. As they say, if we want to change the world, we have to begin by changing the language we use to describe it. The rest will follow.
Yes! It's the vestibular system. I wrote about it in my book on walking (which is a combination of evolutionary biology, humans health, social capital, etc.). I never thought about it before researching walking, but we're on a spinning planet, so as we traverse it, our bodies have to account for gravitational pull or else we'd just fall over. The vestibular system in the inner ear does that. I notice its effects most if I get strong vertigo, like if I'm skiing in thick fog and lose sense of up and down.
And I am totally with you on the language. I'm glad you brought up "pay attention" because that one's been bugging me for a while. If you have a replacement I'd love to hear it. I've been using "attend to" a lot but it still feels transactional.
Good essay. I took up street photography to help me concentrate and pay attention on my walks. I find that, although walking takes time, it also makes time, or at least slows it down and stretches it out. And it changes the scale of things. You discover that, like points of light in the sky, small things contain galaxies. A single breath is a warm breeze. Your swinging arms keep the clouds moving. And when you realise that your stride, pulling the ground towards you with each step, is helping the earth to rotate, giving us the seasons, you have all the reasons you need to keep walking.
Street photography is such a great idea. I should think about that a little more. I usually take photos when I'm walking -- originally for my Instagram, now just to use here -- but don't think about it quite so intentionally.
I LOVE that, about slowing down and stretching out time. Like walking itself! Or spending time with starlight in the early morning. "And when you realise that your stride, pulling the ground towards you with each step, is helping the earth to rotate, giving us the seasons, you have all the reasons you need to keep walking." YES. So beautiful. (Incidentally, the way that our inner ear system responds to the gravitational pull of the earth is one of the most fascinating things in the world to me.)
It is such a pleasure and a privilege to be able to listen to your recordings of these posts. It brings you closer to my neighborhood, so to speak. You talked of burning sweetgrass, which I did not know about. I was only familiar with braiding it, as in the book titled "Braiding Sweetgrass". What a lovely meditation. The longer I live, the more I wish to discard what I really can of this highly-mechanized society and retreat to a quieter life to work with my hands. My brain is tired.
I'm glad you liked the recording!
Sweetgrass is burned in ceremonies and for other purposes, and in some medicines. I'm not deeply familiar with all the uses and they're not my traditions to speak of, but many peoples have a relationship it.
And I am WITH you. The more I go offline, the more I want to be there, and away from all the rest of it. Too much of this world wears us all out. 🧡
this was really nice to read. Kind of reminded me of how I feel about writing etc...so much work but worth doing.
Writing definitely is one of these things. Pretty much everything worth doing is a lot of work and inefficient and anti-capitalist and what makes life worth living.
Personally, I think the continued ramping up of information and discourse and reading material at our fingertips, next to our very finite and unchanging capacity to process it, has made reading feel more difficult even as it appears like it should be easier. It was cool to hear this post read out loud.
One of the many reasons I've never owned a car is that I'm sort of afraid that if I did, I would grow accustomed to using a car and less accustomed to walking places. Even with the best of intentions, you're right; it does take effort to live intentionally and resist the choice architecture. For me it takes a lot less effort to just not have a car which restricts a lot of options, but makes other options more visible. Most people don't have that luxury, though. And I've always lived in walking cities. This summer I was in the Twin Cities for about 5 weeks which is both a great place for walking, and weirdly car-centric: lots of neat neighborhoods and parks and paths, but the public transportation isn't great and the light rail in particular has become so unregulated and unsafe that most people told me to never ride it after 7 pm (I rode it anyway). The one suburb I spent any time in was a walking wasteland.
You know, I honestly hadn't thought about how the presentation of reading material is making it more difficult. Or maybe I had but not quite in those terms. I have often wondered if we should give more attention to, say, the effects on our eyesight of so much screen-looking time. I find that if I've been working on my computer and then go read a book, my attention is jumpier but it's really because my eyes keep skipping around.
I'm glad the audio worked!
My spouse grew up in England with parents who never owned a car or learned to drive. I taught him to drive when he was 30 (not recommended with a partner, I have to say). It was and continues to be astonishing to me how much more he wants to drive than I do. Not just long distances, but, say, downtown even when it's often faster to walk than to drive there and try to find parking. You really *do* adapt.
"Resisting the choice architecture" is a great way to put it. It's more difficult where I live because there's no public transit, but when I got to a city and ride the buses instead of getting an Uber or a Lyft, I get a lot of comments from people, especially if I'm visiting friends.
Speaking of which, I lived in St. Paul for 4 years (for college) and have many friends there. I was visiting some a few years ago when the light rail was relatively new and it was so exciting to me, whereas my friends could not fathom my looking up the walk-to-bus-to-rail schedules when I could just use their car. You're not the first person who's told me about the decline of the light rail. It's really disappointing.
I worked for a non-profit one summer where I had to go door-knocking for petitions and donations. Always in those upper-class Twin Cities suburbs because that was where the money was. Very weird thing to be walking for hours in the heat in a wealthy places not at all designed for walking. "Wasteland" is right.
I was thinking both of the impact of screens on how we engage with text and reading material, and more generally the cognitive overload from too much information and potential material to parse. It's like having to juggle infinity with your fingertips (but pressing down instead of throwing up).
St. Paul is where I was staying too, and I really liked the neighborhoods there. But the light rail on University Ave. goes through some bombed-out stretches (apparently they never recovered from the riots in 2020), and I must say the situation on the trains is the worst I've seen on any public transport. The city has clearly opted to stop regulating or supervising the trains; perhaps a hands-off strategy after Black Lives Matter, or maybe just entropy? I don't know. But I rode it probably 40 times, and *no one* pays, ever. Maybe that's good to have it free by default, but literally didn't see a single employee or security person in 5 weeks. Well over 50% of the people riding look like they're in a pretty bad way, including many homeless and disabled, usually one person behaving eccentrically or talking to themselves, drug deals in open view, etc. Of course in New York or Boston or Philly you have the same; the difference is that everyone else still rides too. In M-SP I got the feeling that anyone with means just stays away.
I never saw the rich suburbs - only Oakdale on the eastern edge - and rural places like Montana are a totally different ball of wax. But I have spent plenty of time in fancy suburbs elsewhere (esp. Connecticut and DC), and am always struck by how messed up and unnatural that culture feels; I really believe it's the source of many of our national pathologies. But all the visible symptoms show up in the cities instead.
The cognitive overload is mind-boggling, literally AND figuratively. How do we even begin to make choices on where to send our attention? The idea of some kind of workable decision tree feels laughable. I tend to focus on my research areas and my values and try to keep content corralled in there, but it would take somewhere between 4 and 10 of me to keep up even with what feels like the most essential info.
I don't know what happened to the light rail but that is really a bummer. It's definitely not a place where public transportation has ever been widely used, but when I think of how hard some underserved communities fought to get stops and service when they were building it, it's pretty heartbreaking.
You are so right about suburbs. I read a ton about them when I was researching my walking book, because they're integral to the building of the interstate highway system, and it's pretty depressing how much pathology is frankly just baked into the infrastructure. And on top of all of that maintaining it is way more expensive than most people realize. I heard Chuck Marohn from Strong Towns say that it takes municipalities an average of about 100 years of property tax collection to pay off what they have to spend providing roads and services to most suburbs and subdivisions. He wasn't optimistic about the realities of upkeep within the next 30-50 years.
I am SO disappointed that I can't share my pictures of the Arkansas moon from my walk tonight in this space. It was and is glorious..
That sounds gorgeous! I can start a Chat thread of Moon or other photos this week. Everyone can share photos in the Chat, which is one nice thing about it. It's about the level of social media exchange I can handle. 😂
Pictures of the moon (and other natural beauties) is about the only thing that will make me download a social media application?
I don’t think you have to use the app? I don’t have the app. I used to but deleted it when they launched Notes. I just access Chat through my web browser.
I see that now! I typically read on my phone, so I miss out on some of the functionality of these here space (intentionally, that is).
I approve this strategy ;)
It is too rainy today and I am too peaceful to be trifling with all that, you know?
your writing is a balm. i loved listening to it with the interjections and context of your environment. thank you for taking the time write and record it, especially in a place so lovely and meaningful.
That is so kind. Thank you! And I will try to keep doing the recordings. I have a number of friends and family members whose neurodiversity can make reading hard, or who find their attention just shattered, so it feels important to offer the option. Stories are stories, in whatever form. :)
Such a wonderful essay, thank you. I listened to it first -- so that I could play with my cat at the same time -- and then read it again.
I love how your curiosity is awakened during the course of the walk -- that happens to me too. I think it’s not just that we see the world more clearly as we walk, though that’s true, but also maybe we set the pace of our thoughts? Maybe by traveling faster in a car we have faster, more efficient thoughts -- good for making lists and ticking things off, but not so great for curiosity & expansiveness. Just a theory. 🤷♀️ Thanks again!
I would always put playing with a cat as a top priority. 🐱 Glad this could keep you both company!
Honestly, I think the thought-paces and even what comes up are real things. Even my own walking pace can change what I'm thinking and how. Like if I'm running late somewhere and walking really fast, I notice I get more stressed and start running through anxieties, whereas if I slow down, I'll be less stressed, even though I know I'm gettin later. But I hadn't thought about how that might change according to car pace versus walking pace, that's a great insight. Especially the making lists and ticking things off, which I definitely do more of on long drives.
This is so beautiful to read, especially right now. I too have been giving attention to Moon and Venus and stars, constellations who return like old friends, astounded that I had forgotten how bright they are in a cold almost-winter sky. And this: "Life asks us, constantly, to take a little more time, make a little more effort, give a little more attention. Not just for the rest of life’s sake, but for humans’ own." If only we could encourage everyone to pay attention as you do, as others here do. What kind of world it could be if we greeted Moon, walked as a ritual act of attention. 💜
What kind of world it could be indeed.
I have to admit that, very selfishly, though I look forward to winter and the longer periods of dark here anyway, I've been looking to your posts from further north as we move into winter. I've never been to Alaska, but you bring me there all the time and I enjoy it in all the seasons.
ah i love that. feel the same about montana--can’t believe i’ve never been there and my partner is headed there for a conference this week! 😢 i told him to send me pictures but one day i’ll get there and come bug y’all. 😂
Ooh, where's he going? And yes! You know we'd love to have you here. 😀
Nia, many thanks as always. I needed this essay this week. “Why should any of us assume the world right in front of us, broken as the dominant culture has tried to make it, is less worthy of attention?” Indeed. 🙏🏻❤️
Definitely thought of you both during the walk and the writing of it, Greg. One of the few things I miss from Instagram is your regular photos of daily walks!
Nia, are you noticing anything happening in the 'woodwide web' (mycorrhizal mat underlying the natural world) this year? On the meandering footpaths (no roads allowed here, none) knitting this place where I live along the JOCKO river, I notice an utterly amazing array of mushrooms of all kinds, shapes and sizes (from tiny to plates). I don't know enough to gobble any up, but am delighted to enjoy their exhuberance as they poke their way through various soils and obstacles. I've lived on this 20 acre holding on Salish-Pend d'Oreille land for nearly 30 years and have never seen anything like it. My hit is that this mat is a harbinger of nature's response to the humans' desecration of her world. Mycorrhizals are fascinating creatures who humans who study them like Merlin Sheldrake, "Entangled Life," are amazed by.
Well, I don't know enough about all the fungus, but it does seem to me that this year's visible mushrooms are showing far more than I've seen before. Even in my garden, they're all over the place a lot of varieties. Maybe I'm just noticing them more this year? But if you've been paying attention all these years and it seems different, maybe there is something going on. But in any case, yes, it's been very noticeable in all the places I've been walking and sitting this year. I don't know enough to eat them, either, though my dad and stepmom do. I wish I could bring them out with me more!
I have that book on my big pile of to-read and really should get to it sooner rather than later.
I just love your reflections - as someone else said they’re soothing like a long walk! I do not live in a walkable part of our city and it makes me so sad - no sidewalks in my neighborhood, no walking the kids to school, and my youngest uses a wheelchair so accessibility is always top of mind 💔 I think I’ll try biking somewhere this week though, it’s been on my mind and this seems like good motivation. Especially before it gets too cold!
Also my husband works in public transit and I’m going to share this with him! 🩷
Cheers to your husband! The one thing I'm actively proud of in my life is having raised two people who are enthusiastic proponents of public transit. When I take them to a city and one of them says, "Why don't we just take the bus?" to wherever we're going, I want to cheer. (Especially my younger one well after midnight in Las Vegas, and especially because there is zero public transportation where we live.)
Accessibility is HUGE. I'm glad you mentioned this. When I wrote about walking in my book, I wanted to address that in the introduction and described the way I think about it as being "as present in the world as is possible for each individual person." Two of my closest family members use wheelchairs, so it always really bugs me that most walking books don't talk about this. But my friend Jonathan Stalls, who does tons of walking advocacy and came out with a book last year titled "Walk," consistently says "walking or rolling" instead and I think that's probably a better approach.
Have you ever been to Holland? People always post pictures of the bike paths and massive bike use, which is very cool, but what struck me there several years ago was how many people I saw out in wheelchairs. Because they build the infrastructure with accessibility in mind. I keep working on getting my city to use universal design standards when planning paths and interactions and everything else. I don't need to tell you it's an uphill battle. Very frustrating. But worth advocating for. 🩷
I will say, I noticed (and appreciated) your intentional language in your intro! Walking books don’t always consider it, but also nature advocates in general! There are so many groups (1000 hrs outside for example) and nature preK meetups or homeschool groups in our area and none of them prioritize accessibility. Thankfully our metroparks have attempted to grow in this area over the last several years but it is still a struggle.
I haven’t been to Holland but that makes so much sense about their infrastructure. We have a few bike lanes popping up in our city but not enough to make it feel safe for chairs too. My husbands also on City council though, so hopefully one day! 😂😅
That is so true! The nature/environmental world as a whole seems to steer clear of any engagement with accessibility. And when it does happen, it's so often a blunt instrument of "well do we need to just pave everything," which is frustrating. There is a great organization here called DREAM Adaptive that I've worked with a few times, and one of the things they do as part of their outreach work is advise on things like new mountain biking trails so that they're accessibility-informed rather than imposed.
Can you imagine if city councils and planning boards and so on were peopled by transit and accessibility and racial and environmental justice advocates and and and ... oh wait, I'm thinking of utopia! Seriously, kudos to your husband. That is NOT easy work but it's vital that good people who care do that community engagement. (She says, preaching to the choir.)
Bring on utopia! 😂 he’s a good one, it’s hard work but I’m glad he does it.
Your writing is just as good as going for a walk--I swear I feel soothed every time the way I do when I’m out in the woods poking around
That is about the best compliment I've ever received!
Nia! I've wanted to suggest that you read your essays in a podcast for a while, but haven't because I didn't want to suggest that you "do another thing". What an unexpected surprise to listen to this post! You have a great reading voice. Thanks for doing the extra thing. And I love that it is recorded outside. +1 vote for recording each one in a different piece of public land that you love.
I think you've mentioned it before but I never had the capacity to approach it! I wanted to start with the introduction to No Trespassing, but was so busy at the time I couldn't even get my head around it. Plus a bit of a confidence thing -- I like doing public speaking, but recording feels awkward. Doing it outside was partly realizing that that's where I feel most relaxed and myself anyway, and it helped.
I might go back and do the book introduction, and was thinking of taking it to one of my favorite creeks, so we might be on the same wavelength re recording these in public lands spaces! Even if you lose out on train horns and random neighbors driving by. 😂
There are podcast genres that I would complain to if I heard background noise. But, for what you are doing, the little notes about being in the garden and the neighbor's son driving by were totally on brand. Heck, if a trail rolled by and you went off script to talk over the noise about whatever it makes you think of, it would not damage the final product :D Go for it. You are doing great!
I should go do it at the train depot when Amtrak is scheduled to roll in. There's something about hearing that bell and watching it head out that gives you that "I could just hop on and go ... anywhere" chill. Not exactly like being in a European train station where the world feels at your footsteps when you look at the departure board, but a similar kind of thrill.
Thank you! 🙏
Thank you for writing, Antonia. I love these vignettes into your musings and your explorations.
The lines that stood out most to me are: "The very tools we use to 'access nature' are directly complicit in making existence so difficult and tenuous for all of life. Why should any of us assume the world right in front of us, broken as the dominant culture has tried to make it, is less worthy of attention?"
This strikes at one of my core grievances--our highly commercialized and mechanized outdoor recreation culture, or what Edward Abbey referred to as "industrial tourism." I've always thought of our wildlands as sacred places, to be traversed and enjoyed with respect and reverence, and with the lightest footprint humanly possible. And to your point, why would we not extend that same sentiment to the nature within our midst, taking only what we need, enjoying the beauty that, if we have eyes to see, is everywhere around us, and doing so with gratefulness and reciprocity instead of burning fossil fuels to visit what amounts to a human-centric nature museum?
Are you familiar with Walt Whitman's poem, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer? If not, you might find a kindred spirit somewhere in these words: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45479/when-i-heard-the-learnd-astronomer
This subject came up in a discussion on the War on Cars podcast's Patreon feed, the difficulty they have seen with environmental advocates getting involved (that is, not getting involved) in advocacy around freeing us from cars. Because it's integral, isn't it? There aren't many places you can go for a hike that don't require driving, so not many are willing to take that on.
I've been in a few respectful disagreements recently about allowing bicycles in wilderness areas. It's not about preserving some European myth of "wilderness," but it is about that respect you talk about, about not using nature for our own thrill or excitement, and also about the very few places there are in the world for a human being to just wander around being a human body. I walk a lot of trails that are shared with mountain bikers, and really nothing about it is very pleasant.
I haven't read that poem in years. Maybe not even since high school. He knew a thing or two, didn't he? Thank you for reminding me. 🧡
A fine read to start my Saturday and weekend, Antonia. Thank you.
Thank you! 🧡 It was great to see you the other week.