💐Spring Walk Through Jeff's Hometown

Plus: April Recommendations

“Mr. Long I see you walking all over town."

I hear this a couple times every week at the schools where I sub.

One of my American goals is to maintain the exercise rhythm I started in Europe. Last month I walked more in Moses Lake than I did last year in Thessaloniki, Greece.

My April goal is to walk 10,000 steps every day.

There’s nothing magical about 10,000. Healthy step goals are different for everyone. The mythical 10,000 step goal didn’t come from doctors. It originated from a marketing campaign to sell pedometers.

What is important is that we do small hard things. Growth comes from challenge (hard things.) If the challenge is too difficult, we give up. So our challenges must be reasonable (small.)

Now repeat after me:

1. small

2. hard things

10,000 steps is my small hard thing. It is hard, because my average has been about 7,000 per day. And it is smaller than the 20,000 steps I walked a few days ago, which was too much and made it difficult to get out the next day.

Spring Blossoms

My walks have afforded me the joy of watching nature wake up from it’s winter nap.

I didn’t pay much attention to Spring in the 14 years we lived in Moses Lake. I spent too much time behind the wheel of a car, on my way to a classroom. Not enough time outside. I watched for traffic instead of watching for bluebells.

Europe taught me to notice my surroundings. Because everything was a surprise.

And it taught me to see my surroundings through the lens of how other people might see them. I know how to take better photos than I did in 2022. And I also know what people like to see.

While walking around my hometown in March and April, I woke up to the fact that if I was in Bulgaria, I’d be taking photos of the blooming tulips with a sense of wonder as though I’d never seen tulips before. And I’d be sharing those photos with friends back home.

I’m happy to see my local surroundings with the same sense of wonder as a tourist in Bulgaria. And to share the beauty of Washington State with our international readers.

This Week’s Recommendations

📚 Book Recommendation

Paperback, Kindle, Audible

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts, (Paperback, Kindle, Audible)

Seeing my local surroundings through the eyes of a tourist was a skill I learned from Vagabonding, by Rolf Potts. He talks about it in the last chapter Coming Home.

I often forget that our approach to travel is out of the ordinary. The common path is to take a week or two to go somewhere. We have friends who just returned from a cruise, and family who spent 10 days in Rome. That’s normal. Our first European tour lasted 10 months. And we flew away with no clear return date.

But we aren’t alone. There are tens of thousands of nomads, expats, amd backpackers out there, seeing the world on an unconventional timeline.

If you’ve been curious about our uncommon path, this book will help you understand our approach to long-term slow travel. It is as much philosophical as it is practical.

🎧 Podcast Recommendation

If you prefer podcasts over books and audiobooks, you can’t go wrong with Rolf’s Deviate. I’ve listened to this episode twice.

🏃🏻‍➡️ Zigzag Along With Us on Foot

Share your walks with the Free Pacer Pedometer App

Iphone Android

I created a group and invite you to come walk with us!

You can share photos of your walks. And in May, I will launch a simple challenge of walking 3,000 steps per day. We can do small hard things together!

If you’d like to Zigzag Along with us, follow these steps:

1. Install Pacer on your phone. (Iphone, Android)

2. Launch the app and follow the instructions that give the app permission to record your steps.

3. Click here to Join our Pacer Group

4. Reply to this email and let us know!! Or message me if you need help.

🎉Celebration!

We hit over 100 subscribers last week! 🙏🏼 Thank you everyone for your support!

Thanks for Zigzagging Along with Deana & Jeff.

That’s it for this issue. Hit reply to say hi and let us know what you think! And forward this to friends.

Sunset over Moses Lake

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