Solvitur ambulando
by Bob on February 12, 2008
I was at a monastery last year and when I was walking on the beautiful grounds I noticed a fascinating sign stuck in the ground with this written on it:
SOLVITUR AMBULANDO
It is Latin and means "it is solved by walking".
How very true that statement is.
There are sacred paths that people and monks walk on which take them into the sublime and calm them from everyday anxiety. There are labyrinths in many cathedrals which make the person walking transcendent. Like the labyrinth in the middle of Chartres cathedral in France. And when the rose window is superimposed on it, it shows us an amazing journey and also through the Zodiac.
At many universities in olden times there were hedge mazes wherein people walked to get inspiration and think things out clearly. And rambles, too where people just walked nearly at random but where creativity came too from this ambulation.
Walking today just doesn't happen as much. Sitting in front of a TV or internet screen, or just sitting in a taxi or bus or train going around town -- well, that's the norm now.
So I think we've been short-changed in our modern life of a special kind of locomotion: walking.
Most things are solved by walking. Including a high BMI.