Walking. With Helen and Back.

Posted on by Live & Learn

So, here we are. 1,229 consecutive (almost) days on this daybreak walk at Cove Island Park. Like in a row.

98% overcast, a sliver of sunlight slashes the horizon.

Audible is plugged in to Helen Garner’s “One Day I’ll Remember This: Diaries 1987-1995”. And the author narrates:

“A whole life can be spent quietly and patiently drawing nearer to something important. It can’t be hurried…”

Standing here at midlife (yes, I’m still calling it that), I ponder. 

And I walk. 

Helen continues.

“The story about looking. I want it to have a curve in it. To come right back and tie itself to the very beginning.”

No Helen. There’s no looking back. Not last week. Not to the middle. And certainly not to the beginning.

“As if I could change myself in any way, at this age. All I can do is try to know myself and apply discipline.”

Helen’s been reading to me all week on my morning walks, and I’m smitten. Rewind, 30 seconds. Play. Rewind, Play, Rewind, Play, Rewind. I’ve got vertigo.

There is no Kindle version of her book. I haven’t bought a hard cover in over 10 years. It arrived yesterday on the doorstep. I forgot what it felt like, to hold a book, to turn its pages.

And while I don’t look back, I do look forward and reflect on a passage by Lance Morrow: “The magic of print is that it codifies the great human inventory in physical form. No screen can do that..I like to think that when the world’s electricity winks out and all the screens are dark and dead and useless, perhaps those books that we rescued will be the only ones left on earth. A wandering tribe of survivors will come upon those precious things and (if anyone still knows how to read) will be astonished by the Highland romances of Sir Walter Scott. Or maybe, all unknowing, they’ll burn them to keep warm.”

I shudder to think if that time does come, and I’m here on my xx,xxxx consecutive daybreak walk. I’m sure I’ll be holding Helen’s book to keep me warm.

Notes:

  • More Photos from this morning’s walk here.
  • Book Review of Helen Garner’s “One Day I”ll Remember This” by Charlotte in Book Bird. “…There are some books you slip through like water. They have a weightlessness to them, an otherworldly lack of friction…This was my experience of reading Helen Garner’s diaries. I was surprised by how immersive it was, that experience, how easy to lose my sense of time…Garner is a very sensual, instinctive writer. She feels her way through moments, days, and years, and documents those feelings as they roll and toss…”

24 thoughts on “Walking. With Helen and Back.”

  1. Sounds wonderful! “Otherworldly lack of friction” — also how Mary Oliver’s works come through (as well as May Sarton’s, perhaps). “The magic of print” yes — there’s no other word for it! I have zero lighted or recorded books; holding a printed book is like holding hands with the author. (Well, some of them, anyhow!) And what beautiful Cove photos. I hope you’re enjoying the new coolness.

  4. Sounds like a plan – will you share, please? There are far too many books being tagged as inappropriate or blacklisted for reasons i just don’t see. Sounds like walking with Helen is comforting company…

  6. I’ve never been able to go to E books, I simply love the smell and texture of the pages, and as my memory fails me from time to time I love revisiting many old, cherished friends on my office shelves. 📖❤️

          1. I did NOT dump on you! Thanks to you, I have read so many really good books – and not all of them were downers, either!

  8. She’s great! I had a sample listen on Audible – one of the first lines read by her, “I (heard of) a woman with 64 lovers. I said, oh, that’s a lot?” 😂 Makes me feel better already! 😝 Needless to say, i downloaded the book you mention! Thanks!

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