I would like to welcome you to June 19th which is World Sauntering Day #WorldSaunteringDay. As fast as live is moving along and changing for my family we need to slow down and saunter for a while and knowing today is World Sauntering Day today is the perfect day to get started. Come and join me as I prepare for y walk and I plan on bringing my Dog Pheobie and she and I are just going to saunter along our neighborhood and enjoy peoples yards and decorations. Would you like to come with us?
As you well know he world around us is moving at such a hectic pace that we often forget to slow down and smell the Roses. Even our walk is at high speed, pushing every inch of haste we can get out of what is otherwise the most leisurely of modes of locomotion. World Sauntering Day isn’t just an opportunity for us to remember to walk. World Sauntering Day is, more importantly, an opportunity for us to take a genuinely relaxed tack to the day, and choose to saunter.
World Sauntering Day was formed by W.T. Rabe and here is a fun fact: W.T. Rabe’s son, John Rabe, is the local host for All Things Considered at KPCC in Pasadena) in 1979 as a response to the sworn enemy of the Saunter, jogging. It is thought to have started at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan, USA.
This hotel has the longest porch in the world, measuring a lengthy 660 feet, or 200 meters if you work in metrics. The whole thinking behind World Sauntering Day was to get people to slow down a little and take more note of the world around them. John Rabe was also the press relations office for the Grand Hotel, making it a pretty good bit of publicity for them!
Did you know the definition of the term ‘saunter’ is ‘to walk along in a slow and relaxed manner.’ The likely source of the word is the Middle English word, santren, which means “to muse.” In 2002, Rabe’s son told journalists, ‘Sauntering, as my father would say, is going from point X to point Z, which means you don’t care where you’re going, how you’re going or when you might get there.’ The idea, he said, was to smell the Roses and to pay attention to the world around you.
Jogging, in John Rabe view, was a grueling attack on the body. Rapidity and effort drained all the joy out of movement by making each step as painful as possible. Sauntering is the art of free movement from one location to another which sauntering was, in John Rabe view, unquestionably superior.
Over the years, Rabe gained a significant following when other people began to see that John Rabe was onto something. Jogging might be what heart health professionals recommended, but jogging was draining people’s lives of joy. Where was the fun in jogging? Where was the relaxation? You tell me because I sure don’t know where the joy was.
Sauntering doesn’t just mean walking how you might if you were on your way to work. Sauntering also encompasses the idea that the weight of the world has been lifted from your shoulders. You walk free from stress and strain and can focus on the pure joy of the act. Sauntering is the antithesis of jogging. A painful act that robs you of your experience of the outside world. Sauntering is more meditative and contemplative and you have the opportunity to experience life to the full instead of feeling puffed out and tired.
World Sauntering Day is your opportunity to head out into the world and approach the world with a deeply relaxed air, a moment of pure clarity and joy, all while enjoying the beautiful world around you and everything it has to offer. SO get out there today is this beautiful world the LORD created for us and celebrate World Sauntering Day and don’t forget to bring not only your friends and family but your Dog’s as well.
How to celebrate World Sauntering Day
To celebrate World Sauntering Day give yourself plenty of time today, and do so with the intent of relaxing and truly enjoying your journey to wherever it is you have to go. Saunter casually with pure relaxation, and take in the scents and sights. Greet others, and don’t let their urge to move quickly infect yours. In fact, see if you can get people to slow down and join you on your happy little saunter then he world will be better for it, and you’ll be happier for it. World Sauntering Day is your opportunity to leave all the rush behind and just… Saunter… through your day.
Here is ways to celebrate World Sauntering Day include:
- Taking a break at lunchtime and go for a stroll.
- Leave for work early and take a leisurely stroll before starting work.
- Saunter to your local Coffee store and chill out with a hot cup of your favorite beverage in hand, and watch the world go by.
- If you can’t get out for a walk, then you can chill out at home because the concept of sauntering melds with the Danish and Norweigan idea of Hygge. You are free to experience moments of contentment in your life without external pressures in whatever form they arrive.
I have a question for you. Did you know It would take about 225 million years to walk one light-year at the pace of a 20-minute mile?
Should being busy be your raison d’etre? Is running around all day, from one activity to another and never really pausing to take stock, really what you want from life? I know it isn’t what I want and you shouldn’t either.
Celebrate World Sauntering Day by standing still for a moment or slowing down and not only will you feel invigorated, but you may spot things you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise like the Birds singing, the Flowers blooming, or the love of your life brushing past you in the street. Or children playing outside.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
