It's Solved by Walking
The call of the night walk.
This past year I have found myself drawn to a night walk. Not a work out type walk but a put on casual shoes and stroll around the neighborhood in the dark sort of walk. The wander in silence sort of walk. The contemplate life or nothing while roaming the streets sort of walk. I find myself, particularly this time of year, feeling drawn to it. I started doing it last summer as part of my healing and it has stuck. A way to relax, a way to be present in my life and my body, a way to make observations that do not need explanation but can just spring to mind and spring back out as needed. There are no distractions on a night walk1. The dark blocks out the details, fewer people are around, just you and God and the space to be present.
I was remembering on tonight’s walk the phrase “solvitur ambulando”. I learned it a couple years ago, who knows where. It means, “It is solved by walking.” That is what I was doing last summer/fall when I started these walks. Solving. My pain, my recovery, my understanding of my life, my experience, my future, my fears, my frustrations, most of all my lack of control over my circumstances. Somehow each evening walk solved a little something inside me.
My morning walks are more like missions. Get up, wear work out clothes and supportive running shoes, get to the church and back with some haste, hop in the shower and get on with my day. Things are solved on those walks, which sometimes still include a little running. (I don’t know what the Latin for running is but I do know that I have processed a lot of trauma through running.) But the night walk, there is something special about it. No pressure, no rush, nowhere to go, no time crunch. I usually walk in small circles so I can do one loop or 5 loops depending on how I feel, where my mind takes me and what I need to solve. Tonight I did 2 loops and decided to write this. I got out the basic structure and was inspired to do a few more loops. I stopped when it seemed I might be at risk of working up a sweat.
I didn’t go out the door tonight with a deep need to solve anything, no frustration that needed to be walked out, or any particular hurt to heal, just a desire to walk, but with a knowing that it would also solve. Something known, something hidden, something tired, something lost, something coming. A few laps around my neighborhood does not change any aspect of my life, and yet things can feel solved. It is a reset of my mind, a winding down of the day, a separating from life for a moment to be present in my body.
Whatever is happening in life, good, bad, hard, easy, happy, sad, solvitur ambulando at night.
Trust me. Worth it.
Other ways Solvitur:
When we mentioned this phrase to a friend a couple years ago he took it to AI to see what other Latin phrases might be helpful. Here are a few of my favorites:
Solvitur scribendo “It is solved by writing.”
Clearly I think things are solved by writing. This entire substack might just be me solving things by writing.
Solvitur legendo “It is solved by reading.”
The answer is always in a book. Either information or escape. Both solve.
Solvitur ridendo “It is solved by laughing.”
See my last post2 on why I believe this with all my heart. It’s pretty much a life theme.
Solvitur amando “It is solved by loving.”
Always. So beautiful. Ultimate truth.
Clearly I live in a very safe neighborhood. And also in one with a lot of streetlights. I’m never fully in the dark. Although a walk down a country road in the real dark definitely has its draw as well.
