By Hu Wo (Cuckoo's Song)
AS far as we can see, most people tend to go walking in the morning, particularly for good health. The other possible reasons may be that they do not want to start their day with work-related stress, or they would like to prepare for work-related stress before their daily work. Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that many people like to walk only in the morning for any physical exercise or something like that. In contrast to most people's likes, I would rather go for a walk in the evening. To my certain knowledge, going for an evening walk will relieve stress to some extent after we have been physically and mentally fatigued all day.
In fact, many people do not like to have a walk in the evenings mainly because they are usually as busy as a bee, thereby working late during these periods of time. On the other hand, those who can walk in the evening are most likely to keep early rush hours and will never be late for an evening walk. This is just because walking in the evening as a routine often plays a major part in their day. That is, only if they go out evenings will they probably feel less physical and mental fatigue in the space of a day than average. Even though these people find it happy and healthy to take a walk in the evening, others are given to being late for work as always, lest they should be responsible for an overload or backlog the next day.
Although living in the country, as a part-time teacher, I hardly have time to go out in the evening. Even so, I willingly go for a walk in the evening sometimes. Some evenings must attract me in that the weather is fine with a light wind or without a breath of wind; it is partly cloudy, or there is no cloud in the blue sky, but sometimes, birds fly away to perch in flocks under a bluish-white sky. At that time, my evenings are marvellously pleasant, capturing the subtle hues of the countryside in the evening and cool thanks to a soft breeze. When that happens, I can't help going for a walk in the evening so that I will skip or drop my evening class despite the fact that I should not do so to my students as a teacher, humorous to say.
Of course, it should take 30 minutes or so to go for a walk in the evening. Too much time is not needed for an evening walk, actually. However, strolling in the evening mostly brings many little-known but great benefits to evening walkers, in spite of the fact that it lasts a short time. By a short walk in the evening, we may have a sound sleep for one night, to my way of thinking. Really, walking in the evening for a short time will apparently ease our nervous tension due to everyday work stress. And we will feel free to enjoy the red and orange natural environment around us, which is glittering in the darker sunlight. In some sunsets, even ugly people seemingly look better than normal, as it is said. Truly, it would be best if we went for a walk a little every evening after we let our hair down and leave our work table. Also, we can walk the dog for an evening unless it bothers us.
For an evening walk, I go to the school lane in my village most of the time. This two-way lane was constructed of concrete so that two bikes can go through one another face-to-face or side-by-side. The white lane is absolutely interesting to me. It has connected my village and its neighbouring ones in such a way that a rural way of life comes alive with crowded villagers here and there along the lane on weekend evenings, especially on Sundays. Over there, the little children are playing tag happily, but some are flying kites, smiling. Some young adolescents are surfing the net on their phones. Some pretty girls are taking a selfie by themselves. There are also some naughty boys sneaking, smoking, chewing betel, and even having a beer in a three-person group, as most have seen. Besides, some men are staggering home, drunk. At that time, however, we are all standing under the reddish-orange clouds. All of us look good in one way or another. We are the same, having a keen sense of the cold, gentle wind of an evening, except that our ways of feeling make a difference to the evening. Please forget what we are in quite a while and go for an evening walk. Have fun!
