I yearn to walk like I once did. As a child I grew up in a corner of England much loved by walkers, in the shadow of Kinder, where ramblers first seized the ri

I yearn to walk like I once did. As a child I grew up in a corner of England much loved by walkers, in the shadow of Kinder, where ramblers first seized the right to walk on its sides. As an adult I lived in a compact but vibrant city (Manchester), and each evening I would cross it and see new things. In March of this year I walked from my then home near Hammersmith Bridge in London, down to Putney, the reverse of the first quarter or so of the infamous Cambridge/Oxford boat race course. On getting home, I felt a little funny, went to bed, woke with a fever and over the course of two weeks slowly lost the ability to walk. Eventually, I was diagnosed with a spinal abscess which was causing some neuropathy. It was removed. I spent a month in rehab learning how to walk a little again, but left in a wheelchair. I now have daily physio, I walk with a stick for 10-15 minutes max at a time. My goal is to be able to walk as I once did, and then further: into the Lake District, into the Cairngorms or Alps, perhaps - and I've played with this as a charity gig to raise money for the unit that helped teach me how to walk again - across Europe. Yesterday I managed to walk the shore of the Thames near Twickenham and Richmond a little - a spot Alexander Pope called home, and was once considered a latter day "Arcadia". It was glorious, but hard work. If you have the ability to walk, do it. If you must take an audiobook or headphones, fine. But I encourage walking and thinking and noticing and looking. Then tomorrow, repeat the same path, and notice how everything is slightly different. Become connected to those differences. Repeat the next day/night at the same time, and the next, and the next. After a while you will become connected to a tempo for your environment. It doesn't matter if you're in the middle of nature, at the heart of a throbbing city, or what was until now a banal suburban sprawl: change is everywhere, and through walking we become connected to it. Nothing makes me want to learn how to walk again well, than my memories of walks past prompting the opportunity for future walks. Go walk, you'll thank me for it one day.