Yesterday I mentioned a couple of things about how I was thankful for taking this blogging direction with my daily constitutional by opening it up as something to share no matter how trivial, personal or even how significant documenting a rather routine walk in a typically uneventful environment may be. Certainly it's more for me than it is for you. But there's a common ground here, you know what I'm referring to because for the most part that's where we're all at. I encourage you to look for something interesting outside your front door too. It's there, I promise you. You just need to see that it is interesting. Meanwhile, my looking for something thought provoking in all of this somehow fulfills the prophesy. At least where's a curious effort--for me anyway. I only hope that some little things here and there are engaging for other people too. At least there might be the occassional pretty, amusing, or otherwise compelling photograph. And hey, there was this image, found by a photo editor for Science & Vie (Jr. version) magazine in France. This for a "special issue on, 50 projects for a better world." 40,000 copies for the print edition, my monarch caterpillar gets 1/8 page and I made some money. I'd love to do that all day everyday. This also reinforces my point because I learned a lot about the life cycle of the monarch when I did these images, just as I do about many plants and creatures I bump into with my camera. I don't just take a picture and say here... I do research and learn. In fact, with the monarch I am also planting milkweed seed, seeds collected from the very plant you're looking at in this image come spring. Monarch caterpillars are specialist feeders that feed only on milkweeds.
What I didn't mention and what I'm probably most thankful for in my walks is the incredible zone it often opens for me when it comes to problem solving. I can't even begin to describe and for sure nobody would care to know how many times I was stuck on some task, process, mental or emotional barrier and I was able to work through it or get past it on my walks. That's the 1st thing. The 2nd thing and this has been mentioned a few times before is, I get over physical pain on my walks. Most frequently I recover from back pain by walking. Granted my feet aren't always happy about it but it works and it also works to relieve stress related tension remarkably. No drugs, no side effects... well, again there are the feet. But even foot pain which to be honest is ever present tends, in most cases, to ease after 1-2 km into the walk. Sometimes they start complaining again around 6-7 km but I'm usually homeward bound by that point and they're fine once I relax and take my shoes off.
Today's walk was amazingly quiet. There were moments when I felt like I was the last man on earth. Then some idiot driving like he was the last man on earth snapped me back to reality. Aside from that the music was great, the air was crisp and it was a very satisfying 2 hour outing covering about 10 km. Yes, I stopped a couple of times just to relax and take in my surroundings.
Thanks!
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