“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”

by Emilyn Linden

"Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”― Thich Nhat Hanh

I recently read Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail by Ben Montgomery. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend you pick it up. Emma Gatewood was a fascinating, contrary, and self-possessed woman who raised eleven children while surviving an abusive marriage. She then went on to walk the Appalachian Trail 3 times after her children were grown. She told her kids she was going for a walk and the next they heard from her was a few months later and she was partway down the trail. Apparently they weren’t surprised when they received their postcards and reporters started calling.

It’s an unseasonably warm day today, so I plan to take a page out of Grandma Gatewood’s book and lace up my sneakers. If you need more inspiration than a 67-year-old great grandma taking on the Appalachian Trail, check out these other books in the collection to find motivation to head out your door (pun intended).

 Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women by Annabel Abbs

 A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

 A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith by Timothy Egan

 Thousand-Miler: Adventures Hiking the Ice Age Trail by Melanie Radzicki McManus

 A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach: One Woman’s Trek of the Perimeter of Lake Michigan by Loreen Niewenhuis

 Walking Toward Peace: Veterans Healing on America’s Trails by Cindy Ross

 100 Hikes of a Lifetime: The World’s Ultimate Scenic Trails by Kate Siber

 Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

 52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time by Annabel Streets

Emilyn Linden is a librarian in the FDL Public Library Information and Outreach Services department.