Walking Archives - Madhu Bazaz Wangu
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Walking

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Posted on January 14, 2026
in Cooking, Journaling, Nonverbal Activities, Reading, Walking, Writing
4 Comments

A sketch from "Writing Meditation Practice," 2019 When you shine the light of awareness on yourself, you begin to awaken to an authentic life. With the help of daily journaling you begin to become conscious of what masks your Authentic Self. You pen down passing thoughts and emotions running through your mind like a broken record and leave them on the pages of the notebook. Journaling daily clears your mind and lightens your heart. More importantly, things about yourself are revealed to you which you were not even aware of.  So place the bubbling thoughts, not under your control, of bitterness, anger, resentment or sorrow triggered by a family member, a friend or social event on the pages of your notebook. Then watch the petty or vindictive thoughts, careless actions or unnecessary...

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Thursday, December 18, 2025

Posted on December 17, 2025
in Creativity, Journaling, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Nonverbal Activities, Reading, Spirituality, Walking
4 Comments

The final month of our arduous yet calm and creativity stimulating, mind clarifying, heart-warming year-long journey has arrived. I hope the year provided you perspectives on every significant aspect of your life: physical, intellectual, creative, and spiritual. That it underlined how fundamental sitting in stillness, spontaneous writing, walking, reading and creating help you make a strong bond with yourself and strengthen emotional bonds with family and friends. You have almost finished reading, Unblock Your Creative Flow. This was the first rough look or the clearer second read. Starting from the New Year we’ll begin once again to explore the gift of each day as it unfurls, partly as we plan it and partly to let the universe lead us. With pure intentions, determination, patience, make certain that the combined habits of meditation, journaling, reading,...

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Tuesday, 16 December 2025

Posted on December 15, 2025
in Creativity, Journaling, Meditation, Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Reading, Walking
6 Comments

Meditation, journaling, walking and creative practices are built one day at a time. We come out of the fog of living in the past and see how we are now and could become in the future. We move closer to our true self, witnessing ourselves in meditation, noticing our strengths, and discovering things we can improve while pouring out our thoughts and emotions in our journal.  You’ve come a long way at your own speed. And you continue to mindfully pace your creative and spiritual path. Think about the goals you have reached this year. Thanks to your practice, you are kinder to yourself, compassionate with others, and more forgiving, generous and filled with gratitude. Look around you, take a few deep breaths and be thankful for being HERE NOW. You have...

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Thursday, July 31, 2025

Posted on July 30, 2025
in Spirituality, Walking
4 Comments

For Mary Oliver, a Pulitzer-prize winning American poet, “the door to the woods (was) the door to the temple.”  Walking in the woods helps us understand ourselves and improve our lives in ways you didn’t yet know we could. A moment on our mindful walk may turn into a portal to a creative activity, an insight or an intuitive idea. We just need to pay attention to things you normally may ignore or think that they are not of our interest. Original ideas flow in when our body is busy moving and we are quiet. We may get lost in thought. When that happens, as you now know, bring your attention back to your breath and ask why, how, what, and when about the days at this stage of your life....

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Thursday, July 24, 2025

Posted on July 23, 2025
in Nonverbal Activities, Travel, Walking
1 Comment

Only a few astronauts have actually walked on the moon. But our fictional heroes have traveled through space like no body’s business. Here’s Captain James T. Kirk from TV show, Star Trek. “Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”  Quite different from what the real astronauts said when they walked on the surface of the moon on which no one had walked before. But each one of these utterances resonate with the same exhilaration for exploration. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” declared American astronaut Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969, when he put his left foot...

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Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Posted on July 21, 2025
in Meditation, Walking
4 Comments

What happens after the first five to fifteen minutes of a silent walk? Thoughts settle. Mind relaxes. Senses sharpen.  Depending on the season, we may see green everywhere with variegated bushes and myriad scents. Birds in the trees calling our attention. We may notice fungi protruding from the base of a tree trunk. Or we may see a landscape blanketed with white. We hear nothing. Smell nothing. Just the shimmering reflection of sunrays on fresh ice and icicles. We are enraptured by contrasting lifeforms: plants, insects, birds. Cactus in Moonlight, Oil on Canvas, Madhu B. Do you walk in deep winter months when snow has fallen and your neighborhood looks like a fairytale setting? When the leafless trees lining the roadside are frozen with transparent covering and reach through the blue air...

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Thursday, July 17, 2025

Posted on July 16, 2025
in Meditation & Journaling at Ashby Ponds, Originality, Spirituality, Walking
4 Comments

“In every walk with Nature one receives far more than one seeks.” John Muir Walking mindfully in wooded spaces is a pleasure and necessity for mental and physical wellbeing. However, you may not find wilderness close to where you live, because it would mean an uncultivated tract of land, deep and dense with majestic trees and undergrowth, uninhabited by humans, inhabited by forest critters and blessed with solitude. I do not suggest trekking through unfamiliar woods alone. Ask a friend to accompany you. My husband and I used to explore new treks together. The appeal of adventure midst the grandeur of towering trees and charm of ferny undergrowth was tantalizing. The great variety of flora growing without human intervention energized us, as did the vibrant colors, nature sounds, and refreshing scents. Watercolor...

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Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Posted on July 14, 2025
in Journaling, Nonverbal Activities, Travel, Walking
4 Comments

My husband and I started traveling in our early sixties. We planned to travel twice in a year: within the country (preferably a National Park) and to a foreign country. We also decided against “seeing everything” at any place because that amounts to experiencing nothing. However, walking in any new destination always added to the adventure. As our feet moved with slow pace; our senses got engaged. Pacing reminds me of the mosaic sidewalks in Lisbon, Portugal, streamside sauntering in Kyoto, Japan, and making space through the throngs of people on the sidewalks of New Delhi, India.  Moonlit Night, Oil on Canvas, Madhu Wangu Entering little mom-and-pop shops, eating at hole-in-the-wall restaurants, or talking to street vendors gave us an opportunity to communicate with local people and get a flavor of how they...

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Thursday, July 10, 2025

Posted on July 9, 2025
in Walking
4 Comments

Walking after sunrise and before sunset is popular. But have you walked at night when the sky is ink black-blue and stars are twinkling brightly, or when the moon is full? If you have, you will know how nighttime walks heighten our senses of hearing and smell, titillate our body and mind. In the dark, the sense of sight diminishes but hearing takes over. Focus on the breath, and the inner stillness feels stronger in darkness. Slow your pace, stop, tilt your head upward and gaze at expanse of stars. Wonderment! Awe! Moonlit Landscape Madhu Bazaz Wangu You have to walk under the majesty of the night sky to feel its serenity and magical spell. It clears the mind, it calms, even makes you forget petty problems...

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Thursday, July 3, 2025

Posted on July 2, 2025
in Walking
4 Comments

Since we moved to Ashby Ponds, meditation and walking have turned out to be par excellence nonverbal activities for me. But for you and many others, equally good nonverbal activities are gardening, any visual arts, playing a musical instrument, traveling, dancing, cooking and so on. Wordless hobbies give our mind time to daydream and contemplate about ourselves.  Before moving to Ashby Ponds, I used to cook three to four times a week throughout the year—Indian, Italian, Chinese and American dishes. Outdoor, during early spring I tended to our garden—cleared the soil of fall debris around the perennials: tiger lilies, rose bushes, gerbera daisies then planted annuals: impatience, zinnias, naustrasiums etc. Our garden bloomed and blossomed in variegated flowers and lush leaves in changing seasons. Now my nonverbal activities are limited to meditation, working...

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