Tag Archives: finding inspiration

WHAT I LEARNED IN MY YEAR OF WALKING DURING A PANDEMIC

How have I coped with this time of social distancing? I took a walk, then another one, and it turned into over 364 walks! From 3/29/2020 until 3/21/2021 I logged in 2200, the length of the Appalachian Trail. Walking daily is probably the best decision I never made! Things I’ve noticed are:

  • I began to listen to nature, and my observational skills increased
  • My concentration level increased
  • I feel in better shape than I have been in decades
  • I am eating much healthier
  • I fit into all my clothes
  • My most creative ideas have come while walking – and I’ve learned to take a notebook with me

According to a study done by Stanford University, walking can increase your creativity by 60%!!!!
If I had read this a few years ago, I would have laughed. But – it Is true. You can read about about this study HERE.

Ampitheater found in the woods

In looking back through history, many of the great creatives walked daily. 

  • Aristotle gave his lectures while walking. His followers were known as peripatetics – Greek for wandering about.
  • Wordsworth walked an estimated 175 thousand miles during his life
  • Dickens walked everyday after writing from 9a-2p – and 20+ miles was not unusual.
  • Thoreau felt walking was a pilgrimage to his Holy Land.
  • Beethoven  took breaks throughout the day to “run into the open”. 
  • Virginia Woolf and James Joyce  took several of their characters on walks that she took herself.
  • Nietsche felt it was where he worked best.
  • Mahler walked up to five hours a day. He had a jerky weird walk which his daughter claimed came from his shift in rhythms.

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” Nietsche

Butterfly

I have discovered a hidden world of treasures in my own neighborhood. I have collected over 80 bird feathers, I found a hidden beach, a hidden teepee, a hidden ampitheater – all in my neighborhood!

I have seen a gleeful boy and his father take a bike ride throughout the neighborhood every day after lunch. I have seen a neighbor taking her bird on a walk. I discovered there are three greyhounds (in different homes) on one street, and three standard poodles. There is a cat that likes to walk with her favorite dogs. 

So, get out there and take a walk. Don’t use weather as an excuse, learn to dress properly. As Roger Miller said. “Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet”.

And, I know a lot of you will say – you just don’t have time! I have found I don’t have the time NOT TO WALK. As I said, I walk often these days – often working out a problem in my head while moving. A fifteen minute walk outside is better than no walk at all.  Out of ideas? Again, take a walk!

One last observation, 99% of all dead-end streets or cul-de-sacs have a basketball hoop. I wonder what that means?

Basetball hoop

Do you have an walking stories to share?

 

 

 

HOW TO EXPLORE – MARCH BLOG CIRCLE

inspiration

Outdoor Mural in Atlanta

 

This is part of a blogging circle consisting of women around the globe blogging today with the common theme of “how to”.

“In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it.”
― John Archibald Wheeler

It was a perfect day to explore.  When I took a walk in a different neighborhood, below is what I found.

Mural Art in Atlanta

Mural Art in Atlanta

Free Library in Atlanta

Free Library in Atlanta

 

Kirkwood Mural

Kirkwood Mural

I have driven by this mural hundreds of times.  I had never gotten out of my car and really looked at it.  Called Native Waters, this mural is 343 feet long.  The left side of the river shows rivers flowing to the Gulf of Mexico (the Chattahoochee, Flint and Apalachicola). On the right are the rivers flowing from Atlanta to the Atlantic Ocean (the Oconee, Ocmulgee and Altamaha).  The center of the mural represents the communities of Lake Claire, Candler Park, Edgewood and Kirkwood, the nearby communities on the Eastern Subcontinental Divide (which runs east and west)- which is the site of the mural.

I never would have known this had I not gotten out of my car and walked under a railroad trestle.

This rabbit is found repeatedly in Atlanta on railroad trestles

This rabbit is found repeatedly in Atlanta on railroad trestles

Living Walls, Atlanta Georgia

Living Walls, Atlanta Georgia

 

 

Close up of mural in Atlanta

Close up of mural in Atlanta

Close up of Atlanta mural

Close up of Atlanta mural

What did I learn?  There is so much to see and so much to experience so close to home! And, don’t laugh, but it is important to keep a camera with you to record anything you might find when you either choose to travel a different route or choose to get out and walk in a different neighborhood.

What is close to you that you have been wanting to explore?

This is part of a blog circle, so click here to read my friend Amy Riddle’s blog about her time to blossom! (more…)