Uitwaaien along Hudson

Paul told me that BBC had broadcast a report on under-used words and mentioned a special Dutch word for “walking in the wind to clear one’s head.” Out of curiosity, we Googled it at our breakfast table and located the spelling and pronounciation for “uitwaaien.”

Even though I did not know it in the past, I was instinctively aware of this special wind’s effect on me in my weekday walks along Chestnut, or weekend walks on East Cliff. So grateful that countless frustrations and disappointments have been dumped roadside, which makes it possible for us to go forward and onward.

This time in our walk along the the Hudson River, uitwaaine is particularly pronounced. It is cool and soothing, reminding us that life is beautiful, even though it is full of ups and downs. It is also like a gentle healing hand, patiently helping us to rebuild our health, by incrementally increasing the duration of our daily walks from half an hour to a full hour and more. 

The walks along the Hudson in Croton-on-Hudson, New York is not quite the same as strolling along California’s Monterey Bay. But it has the same uitwaaien, enabling us to create a newer and clearer mind. I understand that such a state of mind will be again contaminated in no time once back to our daily work. It is a pure joy to relish the pristine uitwaaine once in a while!

Courtesy of wordables