After the Walk: The Amazing Places the Mind Goes

By Cecilia Anastos

Every day, my dogs and I walk around beautiful Ramona, CA. While we walk, I practice walking meditation. My concentration is on the sounds the dogs' paws and my feet make as we touch the ground, their breathing and my breathing, the sound the leaves make when the wind caresses them, and the loud voices of some reactive dogs we encounter along the walk.

This is not a book about meditation or dog training. It is a book about philosophy of life and the wandering mind that flourishes after the walks.

It is a collection of 34 short stories. Some will make you laugh. Some will make you think deeply about your own life.

In October 2021, Julie Gallant from the Ramona Sentinel interviewed me, and we talked about my choosing the canvas to express complex feelings. A few months later, I decided to choose the pen to express things for which the canvas would not have been the right medium.

At the time of this writing, my loyal walking buddies were my service dog Nena, her daughters Juliette and Panda, Jolie, Kapa'a, Indie and Luna.

Come inside the book to discover what transpires after the walks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cecilia Anastos
• Release date: Jul 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9780578382623

Cecilia Anastos

Cecilia Anastos holds a Master’s Degree in Strategic Intelligence with specialty in Middle East Issues, a Graduate Certificate in Cybercrime, a B.A. in Criminal Justice with specialty in Psychology, and a Dog Trainer degree from the Animal Behavioral College. Ms. Anastos is also an award-winner fine artist with her art studio located in Ramona, CA; and she also trains service dogs for children with disabilities. Fluent in five languages, she is a pioneer in the utilization of digitized open source and publicly available information to create actionable intelligence, and in the reduction of digital signatures in the cyberspace domain. She designed and taught the first cyber defense program to US Navy SEALs; as well as police departments, and private sector. In 2016, Ms. Anastos was recognized as one of the most influential leaders in the field of cybersecurity by the San Diego Business Journal’s SDBJ500; and she founded her www.meridusk9.com and art studio ceciliaanastos.com. Ms. Anastos is an Adjunct Professor at San Diego State University where she lectures on the topics of open source information collection and analysis (OSINT), risk management when online/operational security in the cyberspace domain.

Book preview

The Beachcombers

I grew up by the sea. Since early age, I have been an avid walker. My first memories of memorable walks are from the age of 12. My brother and I would walk along the beach from one end to the other.

By the time I was 16 years old, we graduated to hours and hours of walks along the Atlantic coast. We would start at 9 a.m. at a beach called La Perla. We would walk for hours until reaching a lighthouse, and then it was time to turn around.

Now, when I close my eyes, I can still see the sunny days, and the crowds along the beach. My ears hear the sound of the waves make as they reach the end, before turning back. We were always walking on that fine line where the ocean caresses the sand and cools down the feet.

We were walking close to each other, side by side, having the conversations of the century, singing our favorite songs from Pink Floyd, Yes, Rush, Sui Generis, and Joan Manuel Serrat. Avid readers since childhood, there was always a topic that would make our imaginations run unleashed, and create a world where everything was working like a Swiss watch.

My brother always walked on my left side. It was then I decided to wear my watch on my right hand to prevent it from bumping on my brother’s right hand. I have maintained that fashion. I still wear my watch on the right hand. When I close my eyes, I continue to imagine a world where things really always work nicely —like a Swiss watch.

During those walks, we talked about the tribulations of life that captured the mind of two adolescents growing up in an upper-middle-class Italian family. We knew we were destined to leave that town. We planned our professional lives. We dreamed about adventures we wanted to embark on. My brother and I were since he was born like butt and underwear, always together.

One day, we stopped by the yacht club to visit with Atilio. Atilio worked at the club. He was always helping my parents with their sailboat, and for us he was an adopted uncle. As we approached the marina, we saw a sailboat with a French flag. At the time, my brother was fluent in French and I was not yet.

We decided to approach the sailboat to inquire whether they were sailing around the world and to offer our help in any way we could. This is how we met Eric Valli, who is now a famous photographer for National Geographic and lives in Nepal, his girlfriend at the time, Christine de Cherisier, and the other couple were Phillip and Sarah (I cannot remember their last names). We switched to English so I could join the conversation as well. This was the encounter that set my brother and me to the planning of sailing around the world.

Mar del Plata

We spent a full month with Eric and his crew. We took them to town to buy spare parts for the sailboat, acted as translators, showed them the best places to eat fresh fish – the places only the locals know.

It was the end of the summer when Eric and his crew had to continue their journey and my brother and I had to go back to school. We stayed in touch with Eric for many years. Then, he stopped writing when he moved to Nepal.

Off till the next walk!

Longevity

It is my ultimate goal to live until I am 122 years old. The exact number of years come from the lifespan of French citizen Jeanne Louise Calment who died at the age of 122 years and 164 days.

Longevity is something that became a goal for me when I turned 18. I went to live on my own and I had total control of my diet. My grandparents lived a long life. My American paternal grandfather lived till the age of 98, his wife lived till 94, and my Spaniard maternal grandfather lived till 90. My Italian maternal grandmother, unfortunately, died at the age of 65. She had liver cancer.

Needless to say, none of them were mindful about their diets. My grandpa smoked cigars. My grandma practically lived on beef alone. She thought only rabbits eat vegetables. In spite of their choices of food and lifestyle, they all had the common denominators for longevity that Daniel Buettner identified in his book The Blue Zones —a network of friends, daily walks, a glass of wine, nuts, a passion for books, and a family that loved them till the end of the world.

My grandma Magdalena played tennis and every year till the year she passed away, she met with all her colleagues for a lunch reunion. She invited me to one of them and I was so moved and fascinated by the conversations of these octogenarians and nonagenarians.

That same year, at the yacht club where I grew up sailing, I met a lady in her 80s who looked like she was in her 50s. It was the deciding point for me that I wanted to do whatever it would take to live a long and healthy life.

Did I have a perfect diet all the time? Nope. I had my share of cakes and chocolate. Alcohol was not part of my equation; however, I would get drunk on chocolate and masas finas and masas secas (an exquisite delicacy from Belgium, France, Switzerland and Argentina).

In the 90s, I embraced full throttle the Paleolithic diet. I realized that sugar was