Walk

An interesting way to set out on a walk from A to B is to choose the path of greatest silence. In the city this is just as possible as it is in the suburbs or the countryside – choosing the backstreets instead of the main roads, detouring through the middle of parks – even if it means a detour…

Then practice some sort of walking meditation, or simply the wonderful Art of Noticing… See what you can see!

This morning on the walk to the library, I saw:

Catkins springing out of a woody winter tree,
A little brother leaping into the arms of his teenage sister to board the school bus,
Pigeons gathered high in the branches of a naked leafless tree,
A glimpse of an empty swimming pool through a closing garden gate,
A neon-yellow workman’s jacket zooming above a hedge on a tractor-mower,
A suited man scratching his head outside a carwash,
A woman with bright orange hair and bright-blue sunglasses,
Sultans of Swing playing over loudspeakers as kids ran into the school yard…

Fragments of life on planet earth. Small things that gave me great pleasure to see.

On the walk home, I found this:

When I walk around awake, I find there is a lot going on out there. All these things seem small, normal, insignificant, but they are significantly more interesting than most of my thoughts. They are real life and beauty and energy and motion, happening now!

I wish I had stopped the lady with the bright-orange hair and bright-blue glasses to thank her for brightening up the world.