As soon as the morning sun starts poking its rays through the tree branches out come the cult of early bird weekenders. Usually most people are sleeping in on Sunday mornings, but these dawn walkers start their day as soon as possible. Sidewalks have more traffic on them than the roads. Most of them are joggers. Some are going out for their morning coffee and newspaper. Then there’s that demographic of older people just strolling.
They don’t look like they have any real destination planned. They’re just strolling along to wherever the sidewalk takes them. It seems like a relaxing way to start the day. Most of them aren’t even listening to any music! It’s almost like a meditative activity.
The word “stroll” sounds like an outdated whimsical expression to me. It’s not that often someone says to me, “I’m going for a stroll”. I’ll hear “I’m going out for a run” or “going jogging”, even “go for a walk”. I rarely ever hear the word “stroll”.
I suppose early mornings is the best time to take a stroll. No traffic, everything is quieter and there’s not much else you can do at that time anyway.
“Taking a stroll” doesn’t seem to be a very popular thing to do. Maybe it’s because everyone is in such a rush during their weekly routines they want to take advantage of the few hours they can just veg out or sleep. Maybe it’s because older folks have more time and they can actually enjoy slowing down, taking a breath and just strolling. Maybe they’re just much smarter than everyone else, who don’t know what they’re missing. They’re able to appreciate such a simple thing as strolling.
I might try it one of these weekends.
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