Interestingness is Interesting

Before the interestingness, though, a shout-out to a certain sidhe I know, who is excellent at discussing leaping technique, and applauding when I pull it off. May her own leaps be long and graceful.

So, this morning I went on a walk. My goal right now is a minimum of 5 minutes a day, but I feel silly just walking up the street for 2 or 3 minutes and then turning around, so I usually walk around the block, which comes to 10 to 12 minutes. It's been kinda drudgery-ish. The neighborhood where I live is gorgeous, so I didn't understand why I wasn't enjoying my walks more.

This morning I got around most of the block and was about to turn the corner for home when I had this random flash of an idea to continue walking for a bit and check out the park near my house (which, I am somewhat ashamed to say, I have lived less than half a mile from for nearly a year now and never been to). I'll admit that I wavered on the corner for a second, but since obeying my intuition is something I'm working on, I headed park-ward.

And there I discovered what my walks had been missing: interestingness! Sure, my neighborhood is beautiful but it's all rather uniform. The buildings are identical, the trees are the same species and approximately all the same age... nothing really stands out.

The park started with a playground that I had fun imagining full of kids as I walked by. I had the thought that I could turn around and head home now, having "checked out the park" but I was curious to see where the path through the trees led. It quickly led to a fork in the path. To the right I could see it curving back to the playground, and to the left it crossed a small creek and disappeared into some woods.

I considered for a moment, but turned left. As I crossed the bridge a tiny chipmunk watched me. The path continued past a wall of honeysuckle bushes (one of my favorite smells in the world) and followed the creek for a ways before dead ending at a road.

I wasn't sure of the name of the road, and once again considered turning around. I caught sight of an intersection and thought I'd just go to the intersection and read the street signs, then probably turn around. I recognized the name of the cross-street, and decided to take a chance on my (infamous) sense of direction and continue on.

I passed even more interestingness! There is a house that has a statue of the Virgin May right next to a really hideous gargoyle. Another place had a crazy overgrown yard and a swath of ivy across the front door (but not across the outer glass door); I'm not sure if it was inhabited or not. One yard had been turned into a zen rock garden, with raked gravel and three tall boulders grouped in one corner. The wooden rake (just like a giant version of the one that comes with those desk-sized zen sand gardens) leaned against the porch and the rake-lines were meticulous.

Pretty soon I came to a road I was more familiar with (I actually wound up 5 or 10 minutes from home!) and decided I'd explored enough for the day. My 10 minute walk had turned into 45 minutes, and I actually enjoyed it.

Here's the really exciting thing: I'm looking forward to walking this route tomorrow! I want check on all of the interesting landmarks and get to enjoy them again, and see if/how they change.

I guess this is what they mean when they say, find a form of exercise that you enjoy... maybe for me it's not so much the format as what happens along the way.