Footpaths and barefoot walking | Day 211 of my 2023 Journal

There is something about the footpaths in England. Some date back to the Stone Age, some back to the Roman Empire, and some established later on. The great thing is, at some point, a law was installed to protect the paths, allowing everyone to walk on the established paths. This means there are literally thousands of paths through fields and along and through other sorts of private land, making England very open to enjoy for everyone.

Where I come from, there is no such thing in areas of agriculture. The rare farmer here and there might have established a route, but it is rare. Walking in the countryside is often no fun, as you will walk on the roads dedicated to cars driving 80km/hour - only a few places have footpaths for hikers to enjoy.

A country so open and full of walking options is just amazing.

I went for a run along some fields and felt the vibe of this - in between the rain. It is too bad this country is so good for walking but sports weather that will make you want to stay home.

Our adventure is still not very exciting in this nice and boring neighborhood where all of the English people twist their necks walking by the van, where it clearly does not help with the German registration of it, and where all the fronts of all the houses are so nice and neat, it is almost stressful. We are enjoying our friends and our day trips and are basically waiting for Silke to get better.

Meanwhile, we watch some movies and talk a lot, sometimes even get around to planning some of the upcoming things. And still, there is a lot of thinking going on.

Later on the same day, I walked the exact same route with my two teens, talking about literature, about the man/machine/instrument-of-the-state narrative to be found in The Bourne trilogy, a book my son is currently reading and in The Terminator, and about dog psychology, a bit about the novel 1984, about radical unschooling and how it applies for dogs as well - and about the immune system and walking barefoot - while we were holding our shoes in our hands, enjoying the grass under our soles. In our souls.

Love and light

Cecilie Conrad

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