A walk among the tombstones.

I will veer away from the sports theme that has dominated my posts this week, like this one, this one, and even this one.  I won't veer far, though, because tonight's topic is walking.  No, no, no - I don't mean the topic itself is walking.  That would be ridiculous.  I'm going to write about walking....far more exciting than sports.

Walking is my exercise of choice.  I bike in the summer and ski in the winter, but walking is my year round go-to activity when I need to shave some flabberdabbers (thank you, Child 3, for uniquely describing Dad's spare tire) from around my midsection.  I'm not planning to reinvent the wheel in this post with regards to the health benefits of walking or even explain why I do it so much.  No, this short post is an ode to the peaceful souls who share my walking path night after night.

My house sits in a nearly perfect location for an avid walker.  A half-block one way I can walk onto the bike lane that runs alongside the street perpendicular to mine, a lane that connects to a several mile paved bike and walking path.  A half-block the other direction is a fairly busy county road with wide shoulders, great for walking despite the traffic.  However, about a month ago I started using a new route for my almost daily walks - the varied roads and paths through the city cemetery.

I love a good cemetery; the organization of the graves, the peaceful somberness, the history that hangs in the air.  My community's destination for the dead is among the nicest I've been in.  Its location on the edge of town reduces traffic noise while increasing the natural feel of its surroundings.    The main road through the cemetery is lined with a mix of mature hardwoods and stately pines.  The graves have been carefully, thoughtfully plotted to allow for room between each while using the space efficiently.  In the center a flagpole, at the entrance a chapel, near the back edge a pond.  Uneven, rolling ground naturally divides the site into segments, regions even; rather than viewing a vast collection of residents but a small part of the whole can be seen at any one location.

While all of its aesthetic features are a delight to the senses, what keeps me walking back into this graveyard night after night are the people.  I'm not much for crowds, but I have to say I feel completely relaxed every time I find myself surrounded by the cemetery crew.  I never have to greet them, they aren't ever in my way, their filthy pets aren't annoying me, and they never, ever disrupt the train of thought I fall into while I walk.  No offense to the people in my life who reside above the terra firma, but the ghosts in the graveyard have become my new best friends.

So, dear readers, if you're looking for a low impact workout that's as good for the soul as it is for the body, I encourage you to take a hike through your local cemetery.  If nothing else, the more time you spend being active in the cemetery while you're alive, the less time you'll have to spend there when you're dead.  That almost sounds like words of wisdom.  Or a greeting card.