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Walk & Pray

Walk & Pray

Some St. Paul walkers share their passion for traveling on foot in the world.

Barb Buckles | Peace & energy

For Barb Buckles, daily walks are healing and steeped in memory. She loves Vander Veer Park. “Ken and I always went there. He loved the fountain. He’d pick me up from work and we’d have lunch there.” Ken died in August 2009.

Now Barb walks with even more dedication. “It gives me peace. I have more energy. Walking clears my mind to think. I talk with Ken or with God.”

Often Barb crosses Lombard Street to sit on a bench in the St. Paul Memorial Garden, where Ken’s ashes rest. She finds that it’s easiest to journal her thoughts there. And then she sets off again to walk the park perimeter. “I see people I know and even if I don’t know them, I smile and they smile back.”

Jim Case | Taking in the wonder

“Whether it’s the cracks in the sidewalk or little kids playing, walking (or running) for me involves being aware of what’s around us.”

For Jim Case, “just being outside is a release for me.” Walking in the evening with his wife Deb “clears my mind and gives me a chance to refocus and de-stress from the day.”

We’re often confined to office or car, walled off from creation. When he walks, Jim tunes into the birds and other sounds of nature.

His favorite time? “It’s going out at night when it’s snowing. It’s just surreal. You forget the cold” and take in the wonder of the moment.

Jim and Deb are big on encouraging others to exercise their bodies and their spirits. For them, walking and praying are a natural pair.

Corrine Betcher | ‘My social life’

‘Walking is Corrine’s “social life.” Five mornings a week, this 90-year-old and her friend Twila stop for coffee at Panera, then they walk briskly the corridors of NorthPark Mall. This has been Corrine’s week­day pattern for 22 years.

“For me, walking is the friendship and the sociability,” she says. “It’s a reason to get up and get going in the morning. Whether I feel like it or not, I know someone is waiting for me. We yak and laugh the whole way,” commenting on the young styles in the store windows. “I think walking has kept me going physically.”

George Bleich | Trash busting

Every time you pick up a piece of trash along the road, say to yourself: “Holy, holy, holy is the house of God.” — Edward Hays

It’s 5 a.m. George Bleich’s daily mission begins. He grabs grocery bags and takes to the city streets. His predetermined route is 2.5 miles each way, from his Betten­dorf home near Bruegger’s to the Davenport car wash on East Locust Street. Some days he points his feet toward Bettendorf, or he goes by bike.

George picks up trash. Every day, he fills four bags or so along his route. Cigarette butts, glass, pop cans. He even frees city drains of those whirly maples seeds and storm-snapped twigs. George is among 154 “Area Maintenance Persons” who volunteer in this way.

“I get exercise and I feel happy about cleaning up the city,” says George. “People honk and yell ‘Thank you!’ out the car window. When my bags get full, I use dumpsters and trash containers along the way.”

This isn’t new for George, a retired elementary school principal. In his working days, he cheered on the Jackson School Trash Busters. It was all about school pride and caring for their world. That good trash-gathering habit continues to this day.

Karin Hanson | ‘It’s an adventure’

Karin Hanson is often afoot… around the park, in her neighborhood, along the river. She loves to walk. “It’s a good way to stay in shape,” she says, and also to stay connected — with a four-legged leashed companion, friends, grandchildren. “Walking is sort of an adventure. I like to walk in different places, and see how far we can go.”

When grandkids Tommy and Alexi visit Iowa, Karin keeps their feet moving. Once she and the teenagers trekked half of the Bix course together, with grandpa Tom checking in at key points with the “sag wagon.”

In the rhythm of walking, Karin catches up with a new or a renewed friend on foot in Vander Veer Park. And sometimes as she walks, a song plays in Karin’s mind and becomes a prayer.

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"Walk joyfully on the earth and respond to that of God in every human being." ~George Fox