In late September I begin Dutch lessons at an adult education centre called CVO Gent.  I’ve seen pictures but today I want to go there.

There are two main options for transportation – using my feet or taking the tram.  Google says walking will take between 25 and 29 minutes, depending on my route.  I walk slower than the Google computer.  Here’s what Option One looks like:

And here’s Option Two: walk four minutes, tram for five minutes, walk nine minutes.  This one gets me to CVO at least seven minutes faster.  It provides at least twelve fewer minutes of fitness.  And it costs four euros more (4€ vs. 0€).

I’m not big on lists of pro’s and cons so I’ll go elsewhere.  What do I get about which way to go? 

Walking.  Uninterrupted flow.  Slow.  Gentle.

***

The second choice concerns the route I take.  The blue dots take me along the Leie River … very scenic.  If I came back the same way, my travel time would be 25×2 minutes = 50 minutes.  The fastest.  But what exactly would I be saving time for?  This route gives me access to fewer of Ghent’s wonders.

Then there are the two paths shown by grey dots. I’m thinking of a quote from a poem called “The Road Not Taken”. It was written by Robert Frost, an American poet:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference

I’ve walked some of the route represented by the right vertical line of grey dots and virtually none of the left one. So do I travel back and forth on the leftmost streets?

What comes is saying no to all of the choices where I’d retrace my steps on the way back home. What comes is the beauty of a circle … going out into the world, looping around, and returning to the source by another path. There’s a mystery in the returning to something, and knowing it newly.

***

Perhaps this mixture of philosophy and walking seems strange to you. Or maybe it’s calling you home. No matter.

I’m about to set off on my journey

I’ll tell you tomorrow of the wonders that come my way