Sunday, June 22, 2014

Familiar Paths


I'm recently back from several months living in the Midwest. I liked it in Des Moines and developed some comfortable routines, including favorite bike rides. But now back home in DC, I've returned to the many paths and byways that I've used for the past 35 years. Being at home feels good for various reasons. It's nice to be back with family and friends. But I get a distinct pleasure from biking or walking along long familiar paths. In certain seasons, I'm drawn to particular greenways. Something about doing this plucks deep neural cords, satisfying an apparently primordial need to keep to the well-worn paths of home. Perhaps it harkens back to the time when we lived in small bands in a particular place where it was vital for survival to know the routes and places where we could find food and water through the changing seasons. Evolution might have favored development of behavior that anchored such knowledge through the release of endorphins when triggered by the right external markers. This might suggest the need for all of us to find ways to allow ourselves to be so anchored along familiar ways that bring us to be somehow in nature.

Just a thought.

2 comments:

MBishton said...

I agree. I always experience a sense of exploring, a little adventure, when I bike to/from work. An early sunbathing turtle or snake on the towpath. Something different every day.

MBishton said...

I agree. I always experience a sense of exploring, a little adventure, when I bike to/from work. An early sunbathing turtle or snake on the towpath. Something different every day.