I saw that today was Happy World Sauntering Day. Seems like we have a “day” for everything, but I like the sound of this one. “Sauntering” has such a nice, lazy feel to it. According to Websters, saunter is defined as “to walk with a leisurely gait, stroll as in “sauntering through the woods“. World Sauntering Day originated at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan in the 1970’s . Of course, that’s a perfect place to saunter. And of course, the day to celebrate it would have been established in the oh so laid back 70’s!
With the summer sun kissing the grass, and white cotton clouds floating through the sky, it seems a shame to do anything but saunter. We spend most of our days doing the exact opposite of sauntering. We hurry and scurry to get somewhere, and then we scurry and hurry to get someplace else. We run and rush, barely stopping to notice a stoplight, much less really seeing the flowers gaily waving their bright heads from in front of the houses we drive by. How much more could we see if we sauntered our way through the day?
Sometimes sauntering isn’t appropriate. My teenager ALWAYS seems to saunter, taking his time doing everything from walking to doing chores which usually drives me crazy. There are times when I wish he would speed it up. It’s really not the right time to saunter if you have somewhere to be and have a short amount of time to get there. But it wouldn’t hurt any of us to saunter a bit more everyday, not just today.
It’s hot here today, 90 degrees with no sight of rain. If I could, today I would saunter down to the pier, and stick my feet in the crystal clear waters of the lake and watch the minnows flit by. Where would you saunter to?
Daydreams of the Soul 
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