WRITING PROMPT RESPONSE
I Find Plenty of Joy in Motion
Being an active girl, I rarely ever stand still
I’m in motion. All. The. Time.
If I’m not falling at 200kph toward Earth while getting paid for jumping out of planes, I go for hikes, paddle across oceans and lakes or pack my bags to move across the world.
I’ve always been an active girl, and while I had to leave my favorite hobby of playing handball behind when I left Germany, I remained active throughout the years.
I find joy in moving in nature. I love going for walks along rivers or on hikes across mountains. I also enjoy moving in or on the water and certainly in the air as well.
Walking as motion
Going for a walk is the most therapeutic activity I can do. I don’t need to climb mountains or planes for that. Just going on a lazy walk through nature gives me so much.
It calms and clears my mind. A walk in nature gives me peace and tranquillity. But it also inspires me. Walking activates my brain cells, especially those responsible for creativity.
I can walk for hours. If it’s not going uphill, I can wander forever. Not even rain will stop me then. Only the wrong gear. But I usually try not to be on that side.
Hiking as motion
From walking, we move on to the next level. Walking in elevation is called hiking. I learned how to walk up in the mountains, and while there was a time in my teens when I hated hiking, I love it these days more than ever.
The mountains are just so beautiful. Spectacular. And inpredictable. In an interesting way unpredictable. I’ve hiked through countless different countries and on four different continents.
Swimming as motion
While I was a slow learner at first, once I knew how to swim at the age of six, I couldn’t get pulled out of the water. If wavy or not, if cold or warm, I simply loved being in the water.
I always preferred natural bodies of water over man-made ones and will go into a cold ocean before touching a heated swimming pool but as long as there is water for me to jump in, I’ll go for a swim.
Or a paddle.
Paddling as motion
It took me much longer to stand on a board, but only because I wasn’t into surfing. Once I found out about stand-up paddleboarding, I knew that sport was made for me.
I could stand up on the board from my first try and just love exploring canals, rivers, lakes and oceans around the world from the elevated position of standing on a board.
Freefalling as motion
Certainly one of the faster activities where I find joy in motion, but being in freefall is quite exhilarating. The most fun is when you’re together with friends; you hold hands and create formations.
Even though I love teaching others to find joy in the motion of freefall as well. The smile they pull on their faces once they learn how to be stable in the sky is priceless.
Moving every six months to a new home — always in motion
And I guess moving every season to a new place, new country and often even a new continent is certainly a lot of motion as well. Thanks or due to our job as skydiving instructors, David and I move a lot.
Below you can see all our belongings, including sports and working gear, which we took with us on our most recent move to New Zealand.
To come back to the topic, you might have noticed I certainly find a lot of joy in motion. And I probably could have come up with a lot of other activities I do to be in motion. But these are enough.
This was my slightly delayed response to the November prompt. Thank you for the inspiration and monthly challenge at W&W, Dennett.
See other participants and their submissions:
Dennett with “First, I was Swifted — Then, Armied”
Dan Pfeifer with “Mountain Biking Brings Me Joy in Motion”
Louise Peacock with “Standing up and Moving”
Julia A. Keirns with “Finding Joy in Motion”
Christine Morris Ph.D. with “Joy In Motion”
Krasi Shapkarova with “Finding Joy in Hiking”
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