On My Walks

On My Walks

Anne DoyleLeave a comment

When I left the house today to walk, I was in a huff.  Throughout the day, I made several careless errors on documents that I sent out to others and when I considered them as a group, I was feeling pretty bad about myself.  How could I have made those mistakes?  (One of them I still sort of feel like was a technical glitch, but in reality I can’t imagine how the computer could err without a contribution from me.)  Anyway, negative emotions were rampant.

And you know what?  My walk was much less satisfying than usual.  I passed half a lap of my route before I could see anything to look at all and then a quarter of a lap before I could see anything other than the grunge…trash in the gutters, brown grass, weeds, bird poop on the sidewalk.  It wasn’t until I was almost home that I even noticed the buds on the trees, the daffodils in yards, and the clear skies over the Foothills.

By that time I was asking myself if it was doing me or anyone else any good carrying those negative feelings around…of course, I answered no, but replied how difficult it is to drop them.  But, I tried, and by the time I returned home I was feeling better.

Funny how a walk outside can clear the mind…and the emotions.  I’m going to try to hold onto this peace I found.  It feels a lot better than what I was feeling before.

Listening

Whooooo is it?

Anne Doyle1 Comment

At dawn every morning this week I have heard an owl just outside our home.  I’m wondering why suddenly he (or she?) is hooting; is this a seasonal owl behavior?  Never lasting very long, the song is distinctive.  I wish I knew what the bird looked like too.  Is it a Great Horned Owl?  I hear that species is typical for the owls found around here.

But no matter whether the owl be a he or she, a Great Horned Owl or a Barn Owl, large or small, whatever…it makes me smile and wonder at the life out in the darkness.

 

img_8890

(No, there is no owl in the photo…too bad, isn’t it?)

Seeing

Does this look creepy to you?

Anne DoyleLeave a comment

I can’t quite figure out why this tree looks strange to me, but those roots just don’t see, right.  Gnarled is okay, but somehow these things seem stunted and awfully white.

This seems an issue of expectation, don’t you think?  Tree roots are supposed to have certain qualities and when they don’t, well, it’s difficult to feel good about them.

What might that say about how we feel about other people?  Any  issues with expectations in relationships?

img_8930

Words

Words

Anne Doyle2 Comments

Though spring begins slowly and tentatively, it grows with a tenacity that never fails to touch me.  The smallest and most tender shoots insist on having their way, coming up through ground that looked, only a few weeks earlier, as if it would never grow anything again.  The crocuses and snowdrops do not bloom for long.  But their mere appearance, however brief, is always a harbinger of hope, and from those small beginnings, hope grows at a geometric rate.  The days get longer, the winds get warmer, and the world grows green again.

–Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak:  Listening for the Voice of Vocation, 2000

Words

Words

Anne Doyle2 Comments

The hardest thing about really seeing and really hearing is that then you really have to do something about what you have seen and heard.

–Frederick Buechner, as quoted in In Constant Prayer (page 71) by Robert Benson, 2008

Seeing

This was outside my door

Anne DoyleLeave a comment

Water sources are interesting in foreign lands. I used to see water running freely from a pipe into a giant basin of some sort and people would come and fill containes then carry it off. And sometimes there would be something like this that where the water had to be turned on and then cut off automatically. This fountain was right outside the door of our first apartment in Antibes. Often people came and filled their water bottles or a dish for their mutt. A few folks that didn’t have a regular residence would wet a cloth and wash their faces and hands.

Running water is such a blessing that we take for granted.

 

Seeing

Passing over my old town

Anne DoyleLeave a comment

What a treat it was to fly right over Antibes on the way to Nice. I looked out the window and was thrilled to see the port, the Old Town, the Place de Gaulle and my old ‘hood. And seeing it from this bird’s eye view gave me new perspective. Of course, I had seen the city like this many times when I gazed upon a map trying to find my way, but no representation could capture the vitality and the richness that I saw perched in my plane. Oh, the wonder of it all!

antibes-from-the-air