A Walk Around the Block

It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’m about to take a walk around the block. I’ll be back in twenty minutes to start working on my blog.

Fast forward. It’s now early Monday morning, and my usual pattern has persisted. I seldom finish my work unless I have a deadline looming, and my blog is no exception.  I need to finish the first draft by noon on Monday to allow enough time for editing, locating a photo, and posting on Monday afternoon. I intended to finish this blog yesterday after my walk but . . .

I am pleased that I have, in fact, posted a blog every week, without fail, for more than ten years.

But here it is Monday morning, and I have yet to write the blog I intended to write yesterday.  But now the deadline is near, so I will tell you about my walk, in which I appreciated the world around me, writ small.

A few houses down from mine where the road meets a driveway there are two small seeds that are beginning to sprout a few forlorn leaves, a gentle reminder that Spring is under foot (and also under car tires if we don’t drive carefully). The trees are fully leafing out and several bushes have graced us with a fragrant floral display.

Perhaps this will be the year we will actually landscape the gardens in the front and back of our house.  But since there is no set deadline, it’s anyone’s guess when we’ll finally get it done. I assume that Spring will return next year, as it has for many millennia, and the gardens will be there patiently waiting for new landscaping.

But I digress. I intend to write about taking pleasure in noticing all the treasures large and small that can be discovered on a walk. There are many. Yesterday I noticed two large tree trunk stubs more than three feet wide where tall trees used to provide shade, a reminder of how ephemeral and temporary we are, as even the strongest and tallest of trees eventually disappear.

While I love walking in nature, I’m often distressed by the way people thoughtlessly leave their trash for others to clean up. Plastic cups, soda cans and other trash appear afresh every day. Don’t people drinking from plastic cups have mothers who told them to never throw their trash out of the car window?

Perhaps it’s cultural neglect. On my recent three week visit to Japan I only saw one plastic cup on the street the entire time.

Perhaps Robert Frost, who opined the world would end in either fire or ice, should have considered a third alternative. Maybe the world will end up as a single gigantic trash heap.

When I begin either my walk or my blog, I never know where it’s going to lead. I do know, however, that there is so much to be discovered, and there are many surprise treats along the way.

You just have to notice them.

Alan