Posted on by LA · 73 Comments

I Took a Walk

The past few days you’ve read about things that happened when I took a walk.

A walk.

To the Farmer’s Market.

Down the streets of my neighborhood, streets that I walk along all the time.

When you stop to actually look at your surroundings, when you pause and look up or look down, you never know what you are actually going to find…or see…or experience…

You probably aren’t going to see someone get hit by a van…but who knows what you will see when you open your eyes?

Inspiration is all around you…sights, sounds, colors, experiences…

How do these things make you feel? Sad? Happy? Intrigued?

Can you see the makings of a story? Poem? Novel? Play?

Or did it just make you think about things in a different way?

Here’s your assignment:

Take a walk. You can choose the destination. Really use all your senses as you walk: What does the sky look like? What does the air smell like? Pause and look down at the ground- look left, look right. How does what you are experiencing make you feel?

Write it down.

Think about it.

Then do something creative with it.

Inspiration is all around us if we are open to the possibilities. I know how easy it is to be in a rut. I was in one a few weeks ago. I looked at the page and I didn’t care that it was blank. I was perfectly content leaving it that way.

So I took a day. I had a pity party. All the teeny tiny violins were there. Then I shook it off like raindrops that you are unprepared for and got on with it.

We are all allowed to have bad days. And if you believe the Friends theme song, it can be a month or even a year…but eventually we do need to snap out of it…

We are too important to have bad days every day ad infinitum…

We are too important to leave the page, or the canvas, or whatever blank…

We are surrounded by inspiration. We just have to allow ourselves to see it: allow ourselves the latitude to explore it.

Put your phone in your pocket.

Take a walk.

Consider this your prescription: put one foot in front of the other.

Posted on by LA · 41 Comments

Gratitude Saturday May 1

I was walking the dog the other day. We were going to the Farmer’s Market. On the way there, we saw someone on a non motorized scooter get hit by a van.

Here’s the thing about your senses: when you see someone get hit, the scene at first seems surreal to your eyes. Yet, the sound of the accident jolts you into reality. Your first split second thought of NO correlates with the sound of YES.

So I dialed 911 to report the accident- (full disclosure- a plains clothes police officer identified himself as he also witnessed the accident except from the other side of the street- he immediately took to checking on the person injured as he saved the scene as best as possible to determine what actually happened)

This was the third time that I dialed 911 in the past few months. One time the traffic light had gone out at the very heavily trafficked intersection near my house, and the other was my infamous ER visit.

So….

  1. I am grateful that the person involved in the accident did not appear seriously injured
  2. I am grateful for all the people who work at 911 call centers
  3. I am grateful to all the people who respond to emergency calls/situation
  4. I am also grateful that I was not walking faster down the street