I felt adventurous yesterday evening. So when I went for an after-dinner walk, I traveled my usual route in reverse. Everything looked different, it really did.
The bulk of my life happens within a limited geographical space, with a repeat of the same routines again and again. Like most people, yeah I know. I go to work, a few blocks down the street from my house. Sometimes my presence is required at my son’s high school, a mile and a half away. A couple of times a week I drive across town to visit my mom. I go to the same coffee shop once a week, and other than that rarely eat out. In fact, I usually stick with only coffee there. I divide my grocery shopping among three different stores, depending on who has the best sales each week, so there’s some variety.
And I take the same 1.7 mile route through the neighborhood when I go on a walk. It’s a nice walk. I leave my front door and turn left, then I circle a lovely park and then traverse streets lined with interesting homes in a variety of styles. There are mature, magnificent trees everywhere. It’s a perk of living in one of the older parts of town.
Yesterday, I was tired of the same things, going the same places and doing the same things over and over. So I mixed it up. After dinner, I walked out of my front door and turned right. I went down the same streets in the opposite direction. I circled the park last.
It made a bigger difference than I expected. The houses and yards all look different from the other side. I noticed things I couldn’t believe I’d overlooked all this time. Had that passion flower vine always been there? Wait, those folks have a trampoline? You totally can’t see it approaching the house from the other way. Hey, that house has a stained glass window!
I’m convinced I need to break out of my rut more often. I’m going to the grocery store later today. Maybe I’ll enter the store through a different door than usual and walk the aisle in the opposite direction from my established routine. I could even go wild and buy some item I don’t usually include on the list – a new kind of crackers maybe.
Watch out world, I’m on a tear!
Gen BLT 