03/01/2026
I was talking to someone today about how they didn’t grow up walking for enjoyment. Their parents walked long distances just to get to work, so walking was never something relaxing or optional it was simply necessary. That really resonated with me.
When I moved up to the valley nearly ten years ago, I wasn’t driving. I was running a business that needed a reliable internet connection, which I didn’t have at home. So a few times a week, in every season and all kinds of weather, the dog and I would walk over the hills to Llangollen to get to my rented office.
On a good day it took about two and a half hours one way. It was beautiful, but it was also really hard. I wasn’t fit and my mental health wasn’t in a great place either. Some days, climbing those hills, it honestly felt like life itself was an uphill struggle.
What I didn’t realise at the time was what those walks were quietly giving me. They gave me time — time to let my thoughts and feelings move instead of staying stuck. Gradually, without really noticing, I stopped focusing so much on how tired and fed up I felt and started paying attention to the land around me — the shape of the hills, the changing weather, the small signs of progress along the way.
Looking back, those walks weren’t just a way of getting to work. They were a place where things slowly shifted. Nothing dramatic, just steady movement — through the landscape, and through that chapter of my life too.
