Take a hike.
No, seriously. One day soon you should find time to set down, for a single morning or afternoon, the hectic scheduling that dictates your rhythms. You should summon up from deep inside the will power to ignore emails and telephone calls for a couple of hours. You should silence all of those attention-span killers collectively known as social media. And you should take a deep breath, put on some trusted footwear and go take a hike.
Or do you call it a walk?
Whatever you call this activity, you should do it more. We all should.
There are the health benefits that come with it. Things like strengthening bones and muscles. Improving balance and dropping a few inches off the waist. Warding off high blood pressure and heart disease.
Also, it will improve your mood. Something about getting the blood flowing pushes out negativity. And it will help you concentrate, as well as stir your imagination. (Charles Dickens created many of the most memorable fictional characters in history. He also never walked fewer than 12 miles a day.)
Do you wonder where you should go hike or walk?
Keep it simple. Walking down your block and back is an option. Or maybe you go a couple of blocks and circle back home.
But if you prefer a change of venue:
You could go to the Riverwalk. Chances are there will be other folks there, enjoying the scenery along the Tombigbee. Passing others and exchanging small pleasantries is a part of that two-plus mile walk’s charm.
You could go out to Lake Lowndes State Park. There is a quarter-mile long track around the tennis complex there. But there is also the Opossum Nature Trail, which makes a five-mile long loop around the 150-acre lake.
You could take a trip down to the Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, where there are trails for any taste. They are named: Woodpecker Trail (a half mile); Beaver Dam Trail (two-plus miles); Trail of the Big Trees (four miles); Wilderness Trail (four miles); and Scattertown Trail (almost two miles).
You could trip up to West Point and take the nearly four-mile long Kitty Bryan Dill Memorial Parkway. Along the way there are five parks, picnic areas, hardwood trees, fountains and a windmill.
You could head out to Plymouth Bluff in Lowndes County, where there are miles of trails winding through different forests.
We also want to point out that it is beautiful in the Golden Triangle right now. Summer is approaching. Soon it will be Mississippi hot — when that blanket of sweaty humidity will wrap itself around everyone’s shoulders. But right now, there are breezes. There are blooms.
So the scene is set. Take a hike.
There are no excuses not to.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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