walk2connectstories

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[Larry (left) and Kermit (right) walked the 71-mile High Line Canal in the summer of 2018 with Walking Movement Leader Chris Englert, who contends that Kermit is the oldest person to have walked the entire way, at age 82!]

Kermit: We walk out of our complex right onto the High Line Canal.

Larry: We live at about mile 48. We’ve been walking and bicycling along the Canal for a long time. I’d always thought about wanting to do the whole thing, and then I saw signs about the walking series. I went online and learned about it, and we decided to do it starting in June.

I’d ridden the Canal a long time before I walked it. I thought I had bicycled clear to the end, but when we walked it, I found out I wasn’t even close – I’d gone the wrong way! My favorite part about walking the High Line was learning the history of the families who had settled here and the things they did. [Our Walking Movement Leader] Chris knew that so well.

Kermit: I really don’t have a background here (I’m from Sacramento, California), so I don’t remember all of the names of the places we saw along the way, but I really enjoyed walking behind Windsor Gardens and the Fairmount Cemetery. I had never been on most of the Canal or even visited the areas it goes through.

Larry: The group we hiked it with is still hiking together on Fridays. We’ve tried to hike every Friday since we finished the High Line in October. The idea of walking and connecting really brought us together.

Kermit: Chris says I’m the oldest person to have walked the whole High Line Canal, at 82. I had never done anything like that before. I had never hiked before at all.

Larry and I met when he was 72 and I was 74. We got together that year and I moved out to Colorado. I had a bicycle in California, but it stayed in the garage. The only thing I did was, after my partner of 30 years died, I got a notification from the American Heart Association asking if I wanted to do a walk in his honor. I had never thought about walking before, but I said yes. I trained and ended up walking two half-marathons. I met Larry about a year later, and I had no idea that he was so active – he has climbed every fourteener in Colorado! When I came out here and learned how active he was, I said, it’ll probably keep me alive, so why not? I didn’t start doing any of this until I was 74.

Larry had a group that would bicycle every Wednesday. I walked right into this group of friends – I was lucky. They were doing bicycling, hiking. Larry had a house in Breckenridge, and we would go up there and hike.  

Larry: I moved to Colorado from Iowa in 1960, after I graduated from college. I grew up on a farm, so we were always outside and doing things. I love the mountains. The minute I got here, I started backpacking. I hiked all over. I had no intention of ever climbing all of the fourteeners until I got to about 45 and I thought, well, maybe I should finish this! I really like hiking and biking and skiing – all of the outdoors stuff. I can’t do what I used to do, but I still like it.

Kermit: If I had come here on my own, I probably wouldn’t have stayed. The older you get, the harder it is to meet people because you don’t do the same things you did when you were 20, 30 or 40. You don’t go to the same places, you don’t put yourself out there to meet people the same way. Sometimes, the older you get, you don’t put yourself out there to meet people at all! So, I was very lucky to walk right into this group of people with whom I just clicked right away. It was wonderful.

Larry: It’s kind of funny – if it weren’t for the fact that I got the start date of the walking series wrong, we might never have walked the whole High Line together. I saw the date and where the group was going to meet, so I went out there when I thought it was. Turns out, I was a day early. I went home and contacted our friend Linda, who had talked about walking it. She said she would do it, and then Kermit decided to do it, too. It was lucky that I got the date wrong!

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[Elizabeth is a Walk2Connect Walking Movement Leader in Boulder, Colorado.]

I have a public health background, and I worked with a terminally ill population in medical research. When I shifted into yoga, I thought it was going to be all candles and incense. It turned out that the yoga population – like all of us – is far more wounded than we realize. We’re not just a fitness-oriented, healthy population. It’s a healthy bunch of people, yes, but we all have a woundedness, and we’re all struggling to find our way in a crazy world. I wrote in an email to my community recently, ‘May we all hold our darkness more tenderly so that it never outshines the light.’ That really is the essence of this work for me: making space for my own limitations, finding other people to feel less alone, empowering and uplifting each other like sisters, and just reminding each other that love is visible and love wins.

I wake up every day trying to put one foot in front of the other, trying to be brighter and lighter within myself. I have to remind myself to be brave. It’s scary, and it’s not easy to face our fears, whether of politics and the crazy world or of encountering a mountain lion or a bear on a trail. How do we summon the courage to keep going? Part of that is not walking alone. So, Walk2Connect gives us that opportunity to stand beside others and find our strength a little more solidly. ‘Life at 3 miles per hour’ to me means noticing, slowing down, giving yourself time to see the beauty. It’s a reminder for me of all the joy I see when I take a moment to pause. Three miles an hour is just the right pace to breathe it all in and not miss the good stuff.

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[Sarah Schwallier is a Walk2Connect Cooperative member-owner and is the owner of Strides Life, a fitness and life-coaching company.]

My walking story began in the fields of West Michigan where I grew up on a farm and learned to appreciate the simple things in life. Whether it was walking the fields with my mom or strolling the beaches with my sisters after a long day of volleyball, I cherished these moments of shoulder to shoulder, forward thinking and forward moving. As life became more complicated with an unhealthy marriage, I moved away from these simple ways, both literally and figuratively, and I lost sight of how walking kept me whole.

It is hard to envision how I turned from an active, competitive athlete into a sedentary and unhealthy stranger. Throughout my marriage, my self-confidence, motivation and body image plummeted by the dominating fears that were created through that unhealthy lifestyle. Fears that being thin would get me raped. Fears that going for a hike in the Smoky Mountains would get me eaten by a bear. So, the weight slowly came on and it became easier to be complacent than to fight.

My wake-up moment came when I stopped listening to those irrational fears that were keeping me from the simple joys that shaped my childhood. I realized that the things that I had been told to fear were exactly what I needed. I needed exploration, walking, adventure, fitness and connection. My 90-pound weight loss journey has been one step at a time ever since. It’s taken a lot of strength and courage for me to regain my confidence and establish a healthy lifestyle in a new place as a single parent. I don’t know the right direction, but I’m at least stepping forward.

Today, after coming back to my roots, I feel more grounded than ever. As a personal trainer and health coach, I am able to draw from my personal vulnerabilities to guide individuals through their physical and emotional transformations. I use walking to make fitness accessible to all people at all levels and to bring out everyone’s inner athlete.

Life at 3 miles per hour, to me, means very simply, slow down. It’s a place of centering. It’s choosing to slow down and not run this typical race of 80 miles an hour and being oblivious to everything around me. It’s not trying to fix people or fix their problems, but just being with them. It’s about choosing joy. If I could help every person feel more joyful when we walk together, that would be a gift!

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[Jonathon Stalls founded Walk2Connect in 2012, after walking 3,030 miles from the Delaware coast to San Francisco, and after completing the 497-mile Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain. His story has shaped the Walk2Connect Cooperative from the start. Here, he reflects on walking as a pathway to being more human and more fundamentally connected to all we are.]

Walking takes me into a deep experience of soul: the soul of the natural world, the soul of human experience, and the soul of moving with what lives in our inner dimensions. Since my cross-country walk, I have continued to walk thousands of miles alongside thousands of people all around Colorado and the country, which has so deeply expanded and widened my worldview. Moving in this way keeps me forever open and available to the many unique stories and experiences living in people and their landscapes.

I think of walking as such a sacred and foundational human act. We are made to move this way, and many of us have no choice BUT to walk or roll to get to work, to the bus, or to the store, every day. The physiological experience of walking allows us to better embody a posture of humility. When I walk, my mind is balanced, my heart is more patient, and my body is better processing stress and toxins. It allows for a radical witnessing of where the land hurts, where people hurt, where the environment defeats our purposes. When we walk, and if our environments are suitable and safe for walking, we are made to better cope and adapt with the stress, trauma and chaos of life. When we walk, I believe we love ourselves better. We have the opportunity to slowly and patiently become more attentive to all of the complicated layers within us.

‘Life at 3 miles per hour,’ to me, is the crisis and the invitation of being more human. At a time when we are so pressured and used by others as expenses or widgets or transactions, and moving at speeds we don’t question often enough, walking is essential for survival. It’s a frame for the crisis around what life is actually like at one or two or three miles per hour for our elders, our friends with disabilities, for people racing to get to work in the snow – anyone. Help tell that story. Advocate. Be a voice for the sacredness of it. We want to elevate that voice and that story and that vibration. Walk2Connect is about dreaming up, offering, investing in, opening up, creating, stewarding – a movement of invitations for anyone, anywhere to be more human in our time.  

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[Maria Rosa Galter is a core owner of the Walk2Connect Cooperative and the owner of Walking Inspiritus.]

One of the reasons I love to walk or hike is that when I’m walking with someone else, I go into deeper relationship with that person. The conversation is not superficial. Walking has always been a place of deep connection and healing for me. There’s a beauty in walking with another person, but there’s also a beauty in walking by yourself. I love to do walking as a contemplative spiritual practice, and I create walking retreats. I think one of the things we’ve lost is our connection with the sacredness of the earth upon which we walk, the sacredness of the spaces we travel through. We’ve lost the idea that everything around us is sacred, including the air we breathe. I like to think of the sacred as a river that runs through every aspect of life: everything we touch, everything we see, everything we smell. Our body is immersed in a sacred experience. We can reconnect with that by walking in nature and experiencing the holy in everything we see.

I came to the United States 36 years ago. My father was from Spain, and my mother was from Ecuador. I lived for many years in Central and South America and in Europe. When I came here, my whole first name – Maria Rosa – didn’t fit into the boxes on any forms. "Rosa" became the middle initial "R".  I finally started speaking up and saying, Maria Rosa is my first name. I don’t have to fit into the choices you’re giving me. I can make other choices to be who I am. Once I spoke up, people listened. Empowerment comes from taking ownership of our own identity, our own body knowledge. We can move from our perception that the external choices that are given to us are the only choices we have, to knowing that we can create our own choices and voice them. That involves a lot of understanding and giving ourselves permission to not limit ourselves. Walking facilitates that process. It allows us to go deeper and develop more self-compassion and compassion for others.

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[Maria Guadalupe is a Walk2Connect Walking Movement Leader in Boulder, Colorado.]

Sometimes, I feel like a caged bird here in Boulder. It’s hard for me to connect with others because of the language barrier. But I love connecting with nature. I grew up on a farm in Zacatecas, Mexico. I want my kids to love mother nature just as I do. Walking with my children is the foundation of our relationship, and it makes me feel like I have more freedom.

My children attend three different schools. We walk or ride our bikes to school every day. During the walk or ride, we talk about the day together, so I always know what’s going on with their lives. Walking with my children makes me feel happy, especially when I see them  getting excited when they spot a butterfly, a special flower or hummingbirds.

Once, we discovered a beautiful place to walk on our way to the soccer field. There is a path with large trees on both sides, forming a lovely canopy. We call it ‘the jungle’. There are trees carved into different figures, a hollowed-out tree squirrels can climb through, a pond with jumping fish and spectacular views. It’s a beautiful experience to walk through there. I lived six blocks from that place for 10 years and never knew about it.

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[In July 2018, Tim marked a major milestone: 500 walks with Walk2Connect! Tim is well known in our community for saying, “Mean people don’t walk.” Here’s more of his story.]

Life is full of interesting people with good hearts. I love to walk, but the connecting thing with Walk2Connect works. Funny - mean people won’t walk at 7 a.m. I’ve only met two grumpy people in four and a half years. They were signed up and came to the Park Hill Sunrise Walk, and we treated them well, but they really thought we got together, whined for an hour and went to work. We don’t do whining – it’s unproductive and doesn’t make you feel good.

When I was growing up, my stepfather and I used to walk all over Lansing, Michigan. We’d go on a three-hour walk after dinner in the summer and solve the world’s problems, talk guy talk. It was swell. He was a good parent. I had people telling me, ‘I don’t think your stepdad likes you because he doesn’t play catch.’ But I’d never asked him to - I didn’t like it. Then they found out my dad and I would walk four miles downtown, get a banana split and walk home, and all of a sudden I was the cool guy whose dad would take him downtown walking. I have a good history with walking. I’ve never done the grand stuff like the Camino - I’ve got a bad back, but I’m down 62 pounds since last May, working with a dietician and walking.

Life at 3 miles per hour is a killer speed: you can actually exercise and connect at the same time. You can walk at 3 miles per hour all day, and if you can’t, start slowly and work up to it. But the ‘connecting’ part means the most. Boy, do we need to connect. That’s not what this culture is good at. The worst problem isn’t that we disagree, it’s that we don’t talk about it. People who don’t share your opinion aren’t evil.

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[Cherry is a Walk2Connect Walking Movement Leader in Longmont, Colorado.]

Anything with activity, fun, connection with people – I’m up for it! When I first started walking with Walk2Connect, I wanted to get healthier and build my endurance and strength. I suffered from a lot of different health conditions: pre-diabetes, obesity, acid reflux, snoring. They were all weight-related conditions. I decided that if I wanted to live a healthier life, it had to start with me. I had to find something that worked for me.

When I started walking with our group in Longmont, I discovered that I enjoy connecting with nature – something I hadn't really done before. I was so happy to find people to walk with, and to help others. I have a couple of walks now and I’m always inviting people to come walk with me. I listen to the community – some people asked me to do an evening walk during the week, so I added Wednesday at sunset, and we have a great group now. Before you know it, people are asking, ‘Oh, you do a walk? When?’

I’ve always been a timid and shy person, and I deal with some anxiety. So, this has helped me a lot – getting out of my comfort zone has encouraged me to become a better leader and community member. I can see how much walking and connecting with people is needed. Best of all, it’s free!

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[Djiby is a Walk2Connect Walking Movement Leader in Denver, Colorado.]

I’m 15, going into 10th grade. I’m from Senegal. My parents left me with my grandma in Africa when I was 2 months old so they could come to Colorado to work. My two sisters were born here, but I was born in Senegal. I just came to stay with them in Colorado three years ago.

I don’t know my siblings very well, and sometimes we argue. It’s hard right now. I miss my grandma, uncles, aunties and cousins in Senegal. One day, my friend and I were leaving the rec center and I was so hungry, but I didn’t want to go home. My friend said, ‘I know a place where you can eat.’ He took me to Street Fraternity. There were so many people there – volunteers, and other kids like me – who helped me. I almost failed out of school, but they motivated me and helped me find a tutor. They said I had to read for an hour or two a day. I didn’t want to read, but they said if I didn’t, I couldn’t come back. I stayed away for a week. I was so sad that I didn’t see them, I went back. They said I still had to read and I was like, OK.

The people at Street Frat make me want to be smart. They are good people. They got me into leading these walks. Walking gives me motivation to go out and see people, to learn things. It takes the stress out, lets me focus on good things and manage my energy. I don’t know what ‘Life at 3 miles per hour’ means, but walking helps me see lots of things. I want to learn more about how to lead, to be open and share, to know how to talk to people. And if it wasn’t for walking, I wouldn’t know how to get to Street Fraternity, because you have to go through the alley and down into the basement [of the DAV building]!

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[Karla is a partner in Walk2Connect’s work in Lamar, Colorado.]

We have all kinds of programs in Lamar, but they’re not necessarily making connections with people one-on-one. If we get organizations to come and walk with the community and make one-on-one connections, they will be more effective. I’ve met people out on walks that I’ve recognized in my community but never really known or talked with before. It’s helped me get to know a lot of really cool people who have the same wants and needs for the community as I do. I wasn’t a walker before, but now, seeing how it works, I enjoy it more than I did before. I love my community. It has given me so many opportunities. I don’t want to be that person who always says, Lamar has nothing for me, so I’m leaving. Instead, I’m trying to make a difference and make it better to the point that a lot of people want to stay here.

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[Mary is a Walking Movement Leader based in Lamar, Colorado.]

I’ve been a lifelong walker. My friend and I have walked early in the morning for over 25 years. We started a movement in Lamar, taking away the barriers for people to get outside, to walk, run, bike, take their family to a park, or whatever. I’ve lived here for 39 years and have immersed myself in the community. I’m the window clerk at the Post Office, so I meet people all the time. I’m in a women’s running club, and I teach yoga and do a fitness class here, so I’m always involved in helping people get healthier.

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[Sharon is a Walking Movement Leader based in Lamar, Colorado.]

I’ve always been a walker. Growing up in New Hampshire, my sister and I walked every day at 6 pm, from the time we were old enough to go to town and back by ourselves. Rain, snow, sleet or hail, we walked. We walked a mile and a half into town and a mile and a half back for years and years until I left home. We shared our hearts on those walks. That’s always been in my blood. When I moved to Lamar, I lived on the north side and took classes at the college. I would walk from my house to the college carrying my books because I loved to walk and I loved to be outside and to listen to the birds.

I worked in the school district for 30 years.  I eventually ended up in second grade for several years and then I finished my last 8 years in Special Education and English Language Acquisition. By the end, I had become very sedentary in my job. I had put on a lot of weight. I have trouble with my feet, so it was hard for me to walk. One day, I was running after a special education student who had gotten off his track, and I fell, severely twisting my pelvis. I struggled with that for about two years. I was at the chiropractor every other week.

When Dustin came to Lamar and told us about Walk2Connect, I talked with him and told him how much I wanted to do it. He encouraged me to try it, to just do what I could do. I signed up for the first walk – I was fine for about three-quarters of it, but then all of a sudden, my feet hurt so badly I thought I was going to die. I could barely walk the next day. But I thought, you know what? I’m going to keep trying. I stared doing exercises. I joined the Silver Sneakers exercise group and I do it three times a week. I thought, I’m too young to be incapable of being outdoors and walking and doing the things I enjoy. So, I decided to push through it. My pelvis has been in place for months now. I’m in the best shape I’ve been in for years.

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[Mia is a walker in our Lamar, Colorado, community.]

I have troubles in life, you know? When I come out here, it’s like a stress reliever for me. I get bullied in school most of the time. I try to ignore it, but sometimes I can’t. My sophomore year was just the breaking point, when I attempted suicide twice. I���ve been bullied because I’m a tomboy. I always have been, since I was little. I was always a daddy’s little girl – I wanted to go fishing, go shoot guns, go do everything else. I never wanted to put on makeup. I get picked on for that stuff. Walk2Connect helps me get my mind off of things. My little brother is 8, and I want to be an inspiration to him to be active. I love that I know everyone in this group, and I meet someone new every time I come out to walk. I’m glad to be getting to know my community more.

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[Oliva is a walker in Lamar, Colorado. Our conversation was translated by her daughter, Alicia.]

I don’t want to be at home – I’m 82 years old. I want to keep moving to stay healthy. In Mexico, we didn’t have money for everybody to have a truck, so we walked. We walked with donkeys carrying our stuff beside us. Here, people don’t want to walk even one block! They want to drive. Here, people spend a lot of time inside. There, we spent time outside gardening and tending to our animals. It’s very different here. The food in Mexico was so fresh and flavorful. Here, it’s flavorless – over-processed. Life is easier here, but not as vibrant.

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[Maria is a Walking Movement Leader in Lamar, Colorado.]

We have a lot of people in our community who want to make it better. It’s just learning how to do that that takes time. Communication is the key. When our morning group started walking, we decided to go have coffee at the end of the week to celebrate and just hang out. We all speak Spanish. There was an older gentleman who would gripe when we walked in the door. He didn’t speak Spanish, and we weren’t talking about him, but he didn’t like to see us come in. In time, we started connecting with him, telling him good morning. Eventually, he told us that one of his gripes, believe it or not, was that we were too loud for his earpiece! It was that simple. When we recognized that it wasn’t us, just something he was going through, that helped us make a connection. Not too long ago, he and his friends said, ‘We love you girls coming in! We look forward to seeing you!’ That is absolutely a connection. I love it.

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[Alicia is a Walking Movement Leader in Lamar, Colorado.]

When you come here from a different country, you don’t always feel welcome. I came here from Mexico. When I came, I didn’t speak English, I didn’t have a voice, I didn’t have anything. So, my goal is to help people get out of their little boxes – get out, connect with people, move up and up! I want to help the Hispanic people connect with others, and I don’t want English and Spanish speakers to be divided. I like to help people connect.

A lot of white people don’t know Hispanic people, and a lot of Hispanic people don’t know white people. I tell them, hey, they don’t bite! We’re all important, no matter what: English speaking, Spanish speaking, Chinese, whatever. Everybody needs respect. Nobody is better than anybody else. We’re not the same, but nobody is better. We should all know each other, and when we do, we love each other.

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[Keith and Sharon are walkers in Lamar, Colorado.]

Walking is a great thing for couples. We can spend time together. We’re always going in opposite directions, but walking brings us together, moving in the same direction. It also helps families get the kids out doing something healthy and noticing more about the world around them. There’s nothing worse than sitting, no matter where you are.