Daily Constitutional

We live the next street over from school so for the last year I have been walking the kids to and from school (much to their dismay).  I am choosing to believe that the dismay is due to the walking rather than their walking companion but I can practically hear the clock ticking away the seconds until we hit teenage strops so I fear my days of arm in arm walking are numbered.

It's not a long walk.  If we're cutting it fine we can make it in 7 and a half minutes but even at a leisurely pace it barely takes 10.  Twice a day, 5 days a week, I walk to and from school.  When the kids are with me there are questions and stories and sometimes a bit of grumbling.  When I'm on my own there is thinking and planning and sometimes a bit of grumbling.  

Walking the same route where not much changes from day to day gives me the freedom to switch to auto-pilot.  The equivalent of those days when you drive home from work and don't even remember the journey.  I have tried to use my walk to engage in some active mindfulness but the nagging ever present mental load at the back of my mind always seems to butt in and take over.  

Maybe this is why women need more sleep than men.  We are tired from always having to remember.  Remember what?  Everything.  The stuff that needs to be added to the shopping list, the optician's appointment that needs to be booked, the birthday card that needs to be written.  The French graphic artist Emma wrote a piece which sums up the mental load up really well.

I have given up trying to be present and zen while I am walking and have allocated this as my getting organised time.  I figure if I can think about this time more positively then I might just be able to claim back some time later in the day for getting my mental house in order.  

Thinking I can do on the move, mindfulness I need to be sitting still for.