splashing dogs & shark fins
I went for a walk today.
Which really isn’t anything new in comparison to most of my days. However this walk did feel different in several small ways. Something I have noticed since moving to a larger city is while there are lot of people around, it actually can be quite an intimate space to exist. Your eyes are drawn to the differing structure and architecture of homes. Homes like this have since been erased when the world settled for quick and easy profits of smooth and sterile looking builds that have mass appeal over harnessing the skill and intention of true artists. The weathered and beautiful incongruity between buildings that have sat for a hundred years only mere feet apart from each other in some areas is like a feast for the eyes, like nothing I’ve come to know or observe in suburbia. So much beauty, so many stories hiding behind walls and lost secrets between bricks and mortar. It so much to take in. By traveling just a few blocks down the street from your own front door, you can smell differing meals wafting from the kitchens. If you take your headphones out you may even catch bits of conversation that are easy to pluck out of the air because of the proximity of the origin voices’ position to the sidewalk, you can hear people singing ballads from the bottom of their broken hearts or catch a glimpse of dancing shadows that live behind the blinds. There is real variety here.
Personality can be found everywhere you look. Some homes have meticulously maintained front lawn landscapes while other little cottages look like their home was quite literally dropped directly in the middle of a city square garden. Plants from property line, to property line. That’s the type I would choose. There are sculptures, color, plaques explaining the history of the ground beneath your very feet, and nature abound. This was one of the most surprising things I’ve noticed. I sit in anticipatory excitement of how this place will shapeshift once spring is in bloom, full force. Typically when I think ‘major city’, nature isn’t one of the words that associate in my brain. This is one of the few times I’ll tolerate being wrong about something.
I left my headphones at home today. Mainly because the battery in them was nearly drained completely after listening to an audiobook all day while copy and pasting information from spreadsheet to software system. I wasn’t cognizant to how much more you are able to notice when you limit the distraction being drummed into your ears. My legs were dull, sluggish and sore on this 4 mile jaunt today, mainly because I completed 8 miles yesterday. I didn’t sleep nearly enough last night, nor consume enough calories today but… you can’t win them all. I’ve tried. And that’s a lesson that came from trying to in the first place. I realized today that there is a high probability that I have put more miles on my legs so far this year than any singular vehicle I have sat in. Something an old version of me couldn’t ever fathom. I smirked, that was a different girl in a different life. I find myself grateful in the moment that my life has not always been consistent, comfortable or nonchanging. Quite the opposite, really. I believe it adds depth and understanding to my character. Resilience even, I’ve never met a challenge I couldn’t tango in the dark with.
I saw a lot of different animals today in comparison to what I normally see. It is not lost on me that it’s upfront a weird comparison to make that by removing headphones from the equation you see more things… perhaps there is no correlation at all. I would argue that it does, though. It’s easier to see more around you when you’re not zoned in on a podcast or feeling nostalgic over the music blaring underneath and behind your temples. Perhaps I require more stillness to be completely present. Multitasking has been left in the past for me. I’d place my money on that being the case. I saw (what I think is) a mole taking a swim, dogs in strollers, cats in backpacks, more ducks than I can identify and a plague of grackles. The grackle’s intelligence can be equated to that of ravens and crows since they come from the same family. Spiritually they represent communication, resourcefulness, cheerfulness, intelligence and emotional expression.
While on the trail I observed a dog splashing and playing in the water. She was a playful pup. That was easy to see by the way she pounced around in the water. After going for a little dip, she was re-leashed by her owner and they headed back up to the trail from the water’s edge, meeting the space about 8 feet behind where I was walking. I was purposefully taking my time and trying to walk slower than my average pace today, I took about two steps off the path into the grass to allow the dog and her owner to pass me. People walking closely behind me is bothersome to me I’ve noticed. It was right when she got next to me that she decided was the perfect time to shake off all the excess water from the lake. Before I knew it I was showered with the water droplets that had moments before been clinging to this German Shepherd. “Freya! No! Why did you wait until you got right there?!” The owner shouted and all I could do was laugh. Freya’s owner started apologizing profusely for the actions of the dog while the dog stared at me; intently panting and seemingly smiling as her tongue hung like a weight draped over her teeth and out the side of her mouth.
Lucky for them, it was only me this happened to. I’m not the type of person who would have my mood soured by any such event. For that I think they were grateful.
Rounding the bend of my last section of the walk I saw that the sailboats were out. I was tired, so I sat on the bench to just observe for a few minutes and give my screaming joints the rest they were requesting. The sails sticking up out of the water reminded me of shark fins. Thankfully they weren’t real shark fins because those would be sharks of a great magnitude and not ones that I would want to take my chances with at my local beach. The thought of my own humor made me smile.
Finishing up my walk, I stopped at the grocery store. I purchased myself some fresh flowers and a girl dinner of a rotisserie chicken that I completely intended to (and did) eat with my bare hands, lemon poppyseed scones, and a Pure Leaf Raspberry Tea for the simple fact Grammy always had them in her fridge. I miss her.& I don’t even like those teas all that much. But, it was a reminder and an intentional choice.
Everything with intention leads to a purpose driven, more fulfilling life.
& what more could any of us want, really?
xo-jess