Walk as Children of Light

By John McKinney

“Walk as children of light,” advises St. Paul, the Apostle.

Children enrich any walk with their own special thoughts, feelings, and sensory impressions. They bring innocence, wide-eyed wonder and enthusiasm that knows no bounds on a walk. Their small steps are accompanied by great leaps in imagination.

One of my daughter’s favorite books is The Listening Walk by Paul Showers. A little girl likes to take what she calls “listening walks” with her dad and notes the thhhhhh of a sprinkler, the bomp-bomp-bomp of a dribbling basketball, the creet-creet-creet of the crickets in the grass. “I hear all sorts of sounds on a Listening Walk,” she says. “I listen to sounds I never listened to before.”

Another favorite children’s book, Funny Walks by Judy Hindley, opens with a question rarely considered by adults but perhaps often pondered by children: “Isn’t it funny how people walk?”

One of the senses better developed in children than in adults is the sense of the ridiculous. What is a child to make of a walker with a scowl and a head bent down or one with a “thinking face” and hands in pockets? And isn’t it odd how animals walk when you take the time to stop and watch?

From infants through teenagers, I’ve observed no single “right” or “wrong” age to take children on a walk. On a practical basis, each style of childhood offers both pluses and minuses for walking families; on a spiritual basis, the pluses prevail by far.

Practically speaking, infants are highly portable, but they require packing all this “baby stuff” to go along with them. Often they sleep a lot, but they cry a lot, too. Toddlers toddle--but only sometimes in the desired direction. Grade schoolers take a vigorous interest in walks--but it might not be the same vigorous interest as their parents. Teens can walk long distances, keenly appreciate both cultural sites and the natural world--but they often don't want to take such walks with their parents!

I’ve discovered that my children have helped me become a better walker--more adaptive, more sensory, more patient. On walks near home or faraway, children are great conversation starters with strangers--particularly those with children of their own. Young walkers remind us that many of the world’s most compelling sights are all around us, just waiting to be discovered.

“Walk cheerfully over the world,” wrote the 17th century English religious leader George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends. “Sing and rejoice, children of the day and of the light.”

Walk as children of light.