Something to Do While Walking

Walking is its own reward.  Through my walking over the last year I believe I've become more observant and less critical.  I've embraced the concept that there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.  I have a much better idea what people living on the street have to face, and I've gained a higher level of empathy for their circumstances.  I've learned to appreciate finding a bathroom, a cool drink, and the little chemical hand warming pouches.  I've gotten to see things that I never imagined even existed in the neighborhood where I live and where I work.  I've been accidentally caught up in a Mardi Gras parade.

One of the more beneficial aspects of walking is that I've found extra time that I never knew existed.  I'm not quite sure what I was doing with this time before...probably watching television or something equally unproductive.  Having this gift of time gives me the space to create something to do while walking.  Some of this time...actually quite a lot of it, I've spent talking to Rory Conlan.  I've spent a fair amount of time on the phone with other people.  I've listened to some music, and recently, I've been listening to the extensive library of TED Talks.

Street Art Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe in Annapolis, MD

Today, I was listening to a talk by Louie Schwartzberg titled "Nature. Beauty. Gratitude." given at a TEDx conference in San Francisco, CA.  Mr. Schwartzberg is a nature photographer who specializes in taking time-lapse photos nature, but that's not really captured my attention. What really grabbed me was the gist of a project that he was working on in 2011 that dealt with the gratitude of living in the moments that make up a single day.  One of the narrators pointed out the unique nature of every moment. That when we open our eyes, hearts, and minds there are endless things that enrich our lives and make mindfulness of gratitude an easy and natural state of mind.

My shadow on the trail...feeling grateful

To open my eyes and observe is to break the bonds of generalization.  Weather becomes what's happening in the moment rather than something to be clinically described by a weather predictor on the television.  The currents in the air, the moisture or dryness, the clouds in the sky that show apparently endless variation, or the nature of a particular rain.  They're always different and always interesting. This talk I was listening to reaffirmed the sense of wonder that's come back into my life since I hit the trail a little over a year ago.

A Water Tower and the Sky - Annapolis, MD

Observing the day like it is the first I've ever seen and the last I may ever see is the sense of wonder that I relearned while out on the trail. Looking back, I'm not sure when that lesson began to sink in and I began to recapture that sense of wonder we're all naturally born with, but somehow, seems to fade with the intervening years.  By recapturing the wonder of life, the gratitude for the gift of the experience seems to naturally rush back into my consciousness, and a sense of contentment and happiness follows closely in its wake.

It was another great day, and I hope for the privilege of another tomorrow.