Category: #MyMorningWalk

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Morning Walk July 14, 2017 – Age of Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs are on my mind as I start my walk today and step over a stenciled stegosaurus Those magnificent beasts of old that ruled this Earth for millennia and arguably still do.

Two hundred years ago, dinosaurs had less relevance than they do today when the search, recovery, commoditization and use of the fuel derived from their rotted and precious flesh drives nations and nature to war and ruin.

Where would we be without their transformed bodies to fuel our daily lives?

Will they still be relevant in a hundred years? Will we?

The sun is bright, so I keep my gaze down and a tag line on a discarded plastic container catches my eye: “Preserve Yourself”

I tighten my stomach, throw back my shoulders, wipe the water that won’t stop flowing from my eyes and walk on.

What did you see?

#mymorningwalk

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My Morning Walk March 17, 2017 – Cafe is Closed

While walking past a corner cafe, I encountered a flustered and frustrated woman.

“Excuse me,” she blocked my path, so I stopped and gave her my full attention, “do you know where I can get a coffee or something warm to drink?”

I pointedly glanced at the cafe’s neon “Open” sign not three feet from where we stood before returning my focus to her next words.

“I thought I knew…but dammit, there’s just nothing around! I hate this city…Do you have any idea?”

I turned my head once more toward the sign before replying, “I’m afraid I don’t. Good luck” and continued on my way.

I have learned the hard lesson, many times over, that you do not argue with other people’s realities. They have to be willing to give up their illusions before they can see what is right in front of them.

We each impose our own views on the world around us, and that view is filtered through our own experience, emotions and interpretation of events.

These experiences are sometimes so vastly different, that they only barely share common ground.

This is why we have Science and the scientific method.

It’s not perfect, but it’s the best way we’ve found to discover the overlapping Truths in the world we all experience.

To benefit fully though, the scientific method requires that each individual be willing to question deeply held beliefs and assumptions, even those that are sacred and most basic, and give them up, if the evidence points that way.

We have to be willing to be wrong. Sometimes embarrassingly so. And being wrong is hard. It’s even harder to admit it. Pride and Fear get in the way.

And yet, the benefits are great. Freedom, clarity, and access to the most beautiful, wondrous experiences of living life free from the shackles of the very same Fear and Pride that would keep us all small.

Because the more we confront those emotions, collectively and individually, the easier they are to thwart.

It’s simple to do: look for ways you might be wrong. Find the arguments that your opponents champion that have merit without emotion, and perhaps most importantly, notice the presence of fear, anger or pride in your own position.

Where those emotions reside, so do lies, deceits, and obfuscation.

(Almost*) No one ever died of embarrassment, but lies and deceptions have unmatched powers of destruction.

Live in the truth.

#mymorningwalk

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Morning Walk July 26, 2017

Karl the Fog wraps the city in grey

And dampens the streets and the sky.

But the lights get much brighter

The air feels much lighter

Every time that he happens by

A man sits at rest in his chair with his bird,

A cheerfully colored McCaw.

His eyes are a flutter,

His hair is a mess,

There are crumbs on his pants and his shirt.

High above him, a bear, filled with worries and care,

Contemplates jumping into the dirt.

A woman up front totters freely and sways

as she walks upon too high of heels

Under banners that wave

selling products we crave

Believing we win all the deals.

What did you see?

#mymorningwalk

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Morning Walk July 21, 2017

Something’s wrong with my watch … again … it keeps skipping ahead and I’m disoriented because I feel like I’m moving quickly, despite the evidence presented by the atomically- correct, constantly- updated device on my wrist.

At 15, I recognized the futility of trying to standardize the moments we experience and gave up wearing a watch for 30 years.

They’re useful for catching trains, but beyond that, I’m skeptical.

Because I can, I take a different path today, down a street into what’s called The Design District.

The sidewalks are wide and cobbled with tastefully small pebbles that won’t trip up even the highest heels. The sycamore trees are tall and the broad green canopies shade buildings that look as if they sprung into existence last week.

The illusion of order and peace comes to an abrupt end at the next street where the sidewalk disappears and I have to thread my way carefully through construction and cars in various states of motion.

A series of reflections in some windows appears to be trying to spell something out, but I’m in too much of a hurry to read it.

What did you see?

#mymorningwalk

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Morning Walk April 10, 2017 Alive

I step outside and the hovering shadow that has kept me from sleep all night is manifest in the body of a pigeon.

It seems to have come upon her quickly, her last meal burst forth and scattered on the pavement. I wonder if she felt satisfied, full and happy in the last hours of her life.

The Buddhists tell us that the way to a happy life is to make peace with death. For to live, is to die, and knowing that, accepting it, allows us to appreciate this brief and beautiful moment fully.

But we still pretend we will live forever, perhaps because it is so easy to die. And so hard to truly live.

Our hearts break, over and over and over again. We lose. We err. We disappoint, and are disappointed. We fight and then, too often, too easily, we give up.

I feel the street under my feet as I stand at the corner. At this crossroad, and most on my path, it does not really matter which way I go, as long as I keep to the general direction, and keep moving.

The only difference is in the experience, and the interpretation is even more than that.

Today, south; yesterday, east. Tomorrow may never come.

As I walk along the concrete and feel the wind on my face, alive, and as much a part of this world as I can be. Breathing it, feeling it, walking it, loving it in all its terrible glory.

Near the tracks, another reminder: a pile of raw meat and bones discarded on the street, and just beyond a flowering, fragrant tree.

The air fills my body, and I breathe.

#mymorningwalk

What did you see?

 

 

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Morning Walk April 10, 2017 – Alive Poem

Today

Death confronts me today as I step out the door. A constant companion, I rarely note its shadow anymore.

A bird, a pigeon, full and satisfied, belly burst wide open, and it died.

Road under my feet. Wind on my face. Swish of the skirt on my legs as I move through this space.

This beautiful space and this moment in time. It’s not very long, but it’s here, and it’s mine.

Mine to do with, whatever I choose. Mine to enjoy, shape, explore, win or lose.

I stand at a crossroad, but it hardly matters which way I go.

Today, right. Yesterday, left. Tomorrow, I don’t yet know.

A glance at the time and I see that it is late. The train may leave without me, yet, I still hesitate.

The path matters in the moment, and that is all there is,

This moment, full and satisfied, is where this body lives.

My eyes begin to water, as I begin to run. This is a happy consequence of living in the sun.

Today’s choice leads me to a man with a heavy load in a long truck.

His choice has lead to him getting stuck.

He swings too tight and threatens a light, and blocks the traffic flow.

Horns blare, people curse, a woman grips her Gucci purse as she exits her car to stare.

One man, a walker like me, stands his ground, signals to the trucker and guides him around.

The street is clear, the traffic flows. The trucker tips his hat and the walker goes.

I hurry on toward the train, but Death has beaten me there, again.

A pile of bones and raw meat, tossed carelessly to the side of the street.

Tomorrow, that pile may well be me, but for now, I am content to Be.