Reveries of a solitary walker or Les rêveries du Promeneur Solitaire by Jean Jacques Rousseau is one of the first modern love stories dedicated to the art of walking. Written near the end of his life, Rousseau reflects on his life and his perceived persecutions for his ideas. The writing is quite beautiful with Rousseau mixing personal reflections, thoughts about getting old, and pointing out particularly interesting plants.
He reflects on his age, writing:
Youth is the proper time to acquire wisdom, age is the period when we should practice it
Beautiful.
In COVID times, I learned (again) that if I walked through the forest every morning, I would have a better day. Let’s face it, working from home glued to Zoom. Teams, Google Meets, etc is isolating and can be tough.
A walk through the mountain ash forests listening to the birds sing in the day and watching the sunrise in mountain mist never fails to lift my spirits.