Walk With God - He Goes Before You!

" The Lord your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place." 

Deuteronomy 1:30,31 NASB

Remember that God goes before you. He has already fought and won any battle you may face today. 

Walk with Him!

Walking Across the Echelsbacher Bridge in Germany

The letter E

Echelsbacher Bridge

Walking across the Echelsbacher bridge was top on my list of things to do while visiting Germany.

After we left Andechs Monastery to make our way to Oberammergau  we found the bridge on the German Federal Highway B23.  

It's a beautiful arch style bridge constructed in 1929. The bridge rises 230 feet above the Ammer River. 

If you're ever in the area don't just drive across the bridge! Park and walk. There's parking at both ends of the bridge. We parked at a small biergarten and enjoyed a drink before walking across the bridge. It's not a long walk but you do have to climb stairs. Once you get to the middle of the bridge you can take a breather as you enjoy the view.  The river below and the forest are gorgeous and well worth the stop.

To see views from the Echelsbacher bridge click here.

Walking Historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta

I know it may sound weird but I love to walk in cemeteries. Not just any cemetery though.  They must be old cemeteries hopefully with a few graves of famous or interesting people and big marble angels. Those are my favorite.

Nancy and I took a trip into downtown Atlanta to visit just such a cemetery. 

Historic Oakland Cemetery

Founded in 1850 on six acres of land on the outskirts of Atlanta, Oakland became the resting place for both the most prosperous and the poor. Soon forty eight additional acres were purchased in order to lay to rest 7,000 Civil War soldiers.

Today the cemetery is slap dab in the middle of downtown, just 5 blocks east of the state capitol. Not only interesting for the historical value, Oakland is also one of the largest green spaces in downtown Atlanta. A perfect place to take a walk alone or with friends, They even welcome well behaved dogs. 

There were so many lovely things to photograph in this cemetery. I'm sharing just of few of my favorites. 

The Lion of Atlanta (1894)

Modeled after the Lion of Lucerne in Switzerland this statue was erected by the Atlanta Ladies Memorial Association to honor the unknown Confederate dead. The lion which represents courage is mortally wounded by a broken spear as he clutches the Confederate battle flag. 

Georgia Harris (d. 1920)

The grave of Georgia Harris is one of only two documented cases of an African-American to be buried in the general section of Oakland. (In other words the white section) before Maynard Jackson (b.1938-d.2003) Atlanta's first African-American mayor.  

The Boyd family for whom Georgia Harris was with for many years obtained special permission to bury her in the family plot. 

Famous Golfer

Robert Tyre Jones (1902-1971)

Bobby Jones was the greatest amateur golfer of all times. He co-founded and co-designed the Augusta National Golf Club, site of the annual Masters Tournament. The area leading up to his grave marker is a putting green and many people leave golf balls here in his honor.


A Famous Author

Margaret Mitchell Marsh

b. Nov 8, 1900 d. Aug 16, 1949

Margaret Mitchell wrote  "Gone With the Wind" the Civil War era novel. . The novel won the National Book Award in 1936 and a Pulitzer Prize in 1937."Gone With the Wind" was the only novel published during her lifetime. She is buried beside her husband, John Robert Marsh.

Symbolism on a Grave Marker

As you walk around you'll see many symbols used on grave markers. This Neo-Classical monument is a good example. 

In the 1890's Thomas Neal erected this statue in memory of his wife and daughter. 

One woman holds an open bible that symbolizes knowledge, the other holds a closed book meaning a finished life. The laurel wreath is for eternity, a palm branch for victory over death and a Celtic cross for eternal life, faith and redemption. 

Too Many Children Died Young

It's always sad to see grave markers for children. 

Often times it's a reminder to be thankful for modern medicine.

Bloomfield

This marker honors four young sisters (2, 4, 6, and 8) who died within a 10 day period in 1863. They were the victims of diphtheria, one of the leading causes of death among children at that time. 

The ivy on the cross represents fidelity and friendship and the rose garland in the center is for love and beauty. 

Diphtheria is a serious bacterial infection. It can be treated with antibiotics and antitoxins neither of which was available in 1863. Penicillin wasn't discovered until 1928 and wasn't perfected for use until the 1940s. Diphtheria is now rare in the United States due to vaccinations against the disease. 

Seashell Marker

There were several examples of this type of marker for a child's grave. So popular it could be ordered from the Sears and Roebuck catalogue. The seashell is a symbol for resurrection.

The inscription on this marker

Maurine

Son of R.P. and Anna A. Robbins

b. Jan 7, 1896 d. April 1, 1896



I'll Leave You On a Happier Note

Oakland Cemetery, like many of the older historic cemeteries, is filled with beautiful old trees and flowers. Oakland is actually an arboretum and a botanical garden. Most of the trees are tagged and there are gorgeous flowers everywhere. 

If you find yourself in downtown Atlanta take a walk and enjoy this beautiful park. 

Lace up and take a walk through history!

Click here to see more about Oakland Cemetery.

Walk and Eat - Cupcake Kitchen, Chattanooga, Tennessee

This should be titled I eat so I must walk!

Whether you sit and enjoy just one or get a dozen to go cupcakes are a sweet treat. We found a nice little cupcake shop on a recent girl's weekend that we just couldn't resist. 

My sister-in-law, Nancy, and I took a weekend trip to Chattanooga while the guys were off at a vintage motorcycle race. Friday she and I took an extended walk around downtown  just trying to get acclimated to the area. And what do we happen to run across?

The Cupcake Kitchen

We weren't even looking for it!

Since we're always interested in supporting the local economy we had to stop in to get a treat!

I had the Italian Cream cupcake and it was molto saporito! (very tasty)

The cupcake was good but what I really enjoyed was the icing. It was light and fluffy and not too sweet. The cupcake was also filled with icing. Toasted coconut and a pecan finished the tiny cake off just right. 

Nancy had the cookies and cream cupcake and she said it was very good. She didn't offer a taste so I can't verify that. Of course I didn't share mine either.

The glass cases were full of all kinds of tasty treats. More cupcakes than I can name as well as chocolate bark, cake truffles and chocolate covered strawberries, pretzels and even chocolate covered marshmallows. They also make special order cakes. Everything in the shop looked so good it was hard to make a choice.

The shop was tiny with only about 5 tables for those who wanted to sit and enjoy a treat. Most people coming in left with boxes full of goodies. 

We ended up walking about 6 miles so I guess a tiny cupcake didn't do too much damage.

I always try to think positive.

If you're even in Chattanooga stop in at the Cupcake Kitchen and 
then take a walk around the city.

Walking Wednesday - Walking the Zoo

No doubt about it my favorite place to walk this week was at the zoo. 

Now our zoo is pretty nice and with a yearly pass we spend a lot of time visiting and walking there. If you follow the path and walk by all the exhibits you go about 4 miles. No traffic, interesting things to see and lots of shade makes the zoo a great place to walk. 

 But what made this my favorite walk was this little guy. 

This is our 3 year old grandson. He spent the night with us and the next day we took him on an outing to the zoo  He was like our tour director. He knew exactly what animals we would be seeing next. He also knew where they sell the red shaved ice! Even though he's been here a few times he still showed that excitement and joy only a little one can have.

It's true what they say. Having grandchildren is wonderful. Your only job is to  love on your grandchildren and spoil them rotten and then take them home to mommy and daddy. 

And we did our job very well!

Lace up and take a little one for a walk!

Walking Tips - Set Goals and Keep Track to Stay on Track

Have you ever wanted to get healthy, lose weight, or exercise more but you find the weeks go by and you're still saying the same things over and over?

I used to be like that. I knew I needed to start moving and lose weight in order to be my healthy best. But it was only after I set specific goals and started tracking my progress did I begin to have success. 

One way to set goals is to use the S.M.A.R.T. plan. You may have seen this before. 

I'll show you how my husband and I set our goal of walking 600 miles this year.

S.M.A.R.T.

To achieve a goal it must be specific and you must have a way to measure your progress. The goal should be something that pushes you but you can be successful and attain it. You must pick something that's relevant to your lifestyle and maybe the most important thing is to give yourself a certain amount of time to achieve the goal.

This is how John and I set our goal of walking 600 miles this year.

S = Specific - Instead of saying we need to get more exercise and spend more time together we were very specific. We decided to start walking together and that we'd walk 600 miles over the course of 1 year.  

M = Measurable- We keep very careful record of our walks. OK John takes care of recording the miles.He uses a pedometer app on his phone to measure our walks and a spreadsheet to keep track. If we miss a day we make it up on the weekend or if we really get behind we make it up on vacations. 

Simple Excel spreadsheet to measure progress.
The columns:
Day, Date, Goal for that day, Actual miles we walked that day , Total miles walked, difference
You can see on Oct 10 we are actually ahead 5 miles. Yippie!

A = Attainable- We knew the goal would have to be something that pushed us but also needed to be reasonable. Working long hours, business travel and family obligations make it difficult for us to walk together every night but we felt we could cover around 12 miles a week so 600 miles in a year is a figure we feel we can reach.

R = Relevant - The exercise we chose had to fit in with our life style. Walking does just that. We can walk just about anywhere and anytime, it doesn't require special equipment and it's FREE! 

T = Time bound - We wanted to develop a life long habit so  we set a goal of walking 600 miles together in 1 year. 

Setting a goal for walking and keeping track is working for us. This is our fifth year of  setting a goal of walking together. It really helps to have an accountability partner-someone who will pull you up off the couch and get you going out the door!

I'm just wondering, are you a goal setter or do you just wing it? 

Why Walk? Pain Relief

I'm always interested in reading about ways walking can and does improve the quality of life.

Headache Relief: Six Tricks to Ease the Pain by Megan Johnson appeared  in US News & World Report, One of the six tricks they listed for headache relief was moderate exercise such as walking and biking. 

"Thirty minutes of walking, biking, or other moderate physical activity at least three times a week is good for managing headaches, says Richard Lipton, a neurologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. Exactly how exercise helps isn't clear, he says. It may reduce stress, a recognized cause of headaches"

An article by Patrick J. Skerrett in Harvard Health Publications had this to say about walking and arthritis pain:

"Taking a walk on most days of the week can actually ease arthritis pain and improve other symptoms. It’s also good for the heart, brain, and every other part of the body."

Finally something many of us may have experienced first hand. Walking helps to ease pain during labor. I certainly remember walking the halls with each of my children praying they'd soon make their appearance!

From the book Easing Labor Pain: The Complete Guide to a More Comfortable and Rewarding Birth, the author, Adrienne B. Lieberman, states:

"A British study comparing mothers who walked during labor to mothers who stayed in bed demonstrated that walking not only shortened labor but also reduced pain and the need for medication."


These are just a few examples about how adding moderate exercise like walking can reduce pain or at least make it more bearable. 

Next time I have a headache I'm going to  reach for my sneakers and try a 30 minute walk!