If you’re like me, you have recently found yourself doing much more walking. I took it up in earnest last year in an effort to loose weight, better manage my stress level, and improve my overall health. However as a result of spending a portion of each morning putting one foot in front of another along the rural roads running near our northwest Oregon home, I’ve found that my awareness of the local terrain, wildlife, and even people of our area has very much increased.
When Torbjørn Ekelund received an epilepsy diagnosis that affected his ability to drive, he too took up walking as a primary mode of transportation. He also discovered many things from the experience, and began to muse upon them, as well as upon the paths he himself was traveling, and the paths travelled by many others, not always human, in the past. These musings have now been gathered into a book: In Praise of Paths; Walking Through Time and Nature.
Translated from the Norwegian into English by Becky L. Crook for the forthcoming Greystone Books edition, readers who may have read Mr. Ekelund’s writings before will now be able to join him in his reflection upon walking itself and the pathways – both physical and metaphorical – which we follow.
