The Spirit Of Sauntering

In Thoreau's 1861 treatise "Walking" penned seven years after Walden, he sets out to remind us of how that primal act of mobility connects us with our essential wildness, that spring of spiritual vitality methodically dried up by our sedentary civilization.  Thoreau argues that the genius of walking lies not in mechanically putting one foot in front of the other en route to a destination but in mastering the art of sauntering.

http://www.dailygood.org/story/928/the-spirit-of-sauntering-thoreau-on-the-art-of-walking-and-the-perils-of-a-sedentary-lifestyle-maria-popova/