Penny\u2019s PR is a 40-minute mile. <\/p>\n
Walks with Penny aren\u2019t for exercise. <\/p>\n
Well, not for the physical kind, anyway. <\/p>\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nWalks with Penny are contemplative and meandering, full of starts and stops. She appreciates every blade of grass, every leaf, every fallen twig. <\/p>\n
She pauses to sniff deeply. Often, she doubles back to re-sniff something she smelled a few moments ago, and we rarely (ever?) traverse more than 10 feet before we need to pause again. <\/p>\n
Occasionally, she stops mid-walk. She halts on a square of sidewalk or scrap of trail and just\u2026 pauses. She looks around or stares off into the distance. Her nose twitches a bit, but she\u2019s otherwise still. After she\u2019s satisfied, she starts up again.<\/p>\n
Walks with Penny require patience. <\/p>\n
Sometimes I don\u2019t have it in me. Either I don\u2019t have the literal time or the ability to draw from my often-empty well of extra patience. <\/p>\n
Sometimes, Penny has to walk with Stola because of time, convenience, weather, whatever. And, on those walks, Penny can pick up the pace. She will never be interested in a walk the same way that Stola is\u2013move fast, cover as much ground as possible, pull when necessary, but move move move move move\u2013because it\u2019s simply not her personality. <\/p>\n
She moves slowly. She lives slowly. She operates on Penny time, a glacial pace that can be challenging to honor in the reality of our busy life. <\/p>\n
This morning, I took Penny to a nearby nature preserve to walk the trails. Stola is currently under rest and restriction from an injury (that\u2019s another post for another time) so I knew I\u2019d be able to pour all my time and attention into Penny. It was clear only a few feet from our car that she felt the spaciousness of this walk. Even getting to the trail head took longer than usual as she thoughtfully examined the gravel and weeds poking through. <\/p>\n
Together, we walked 1.04 miles in 41 minutes and 17 seconds. We walked so slowly that my watch kept asking me, \u201cEnd walk?\u201d <\/p>\n
It\u2019s certainly not physical activity, but it\u2019s a special kind of fitness\u2013my mind clears, I can take deeper breaths, I hear the birds in the trees and the rustle of the leaves. <\/p>\n
So often I find myself frustrated with Penny\u2019s pace. On work days or days when the girls need to be a bunch of places at once, on days when my phone is ringing and my texts are piling up, on days when it\u2019s raining or snowing, the stress gets to me, and the walks feel like a slog. <\/p>\n
\u201cCome ON, Penny,\u201d I think as she stops to sniff yet another unseen-to-me but-interesting-to-her blade of grass. Real life can get out of hand. It\u2019s busy. The day to day can be so hard. Crushing, some days. <\/p>\n
But, on days like today, when we have plenty of time, when I don\u2019t have to rush through our walk to get to a meeting or the girls to an appointment, when I\u2019m not distracted or anxious, when it\u2019s just me and PenPen\u2026 <\/p>\n
When everything falls perfectly into place, there is nothing in the world more peaceful than walks with Penny. <\/p>\n
What are walks with YOUR dog like? Slow and contemplative, like Penny? Or fast-and-furious, like Stola? Or something in between? <\/p>\n