Daily Travel Adventure

No passport required

Walking the cobblestones of a foreign city where I have never been before I immediately become supremely present. Everything I see and hear and smell is new. There is no room for other thoughts as I take in all the new sensory data. That is what makes traveling fun. It makes one come alive.

Of course we can come alive and present in our hometown walking the very same streets we walk every day. But when things become routine it is so easy to retreat into the incessant thinking patterns that loop in our noggins. Our bodies know how to get where we are going so we do not have to think about it much so we can think about other things and get lost in those thoughts.

Sometimes we can be walking the same old street we always walk and suddenly we will smell something that we have never smelled before walking that street. That can quickly pull us out of our brain fog into the present. I love that, especially if it is a smell that I cannot quite identify. The nose is an important part of walking as well as being present.

Imagine walking down the same street every day but one day there are street musicians playing music on the sidewalk. Now that can really pull one into the present. What our society needs is more street musicians.

You know how some streets have speed bumps? What if we placed speed bumps on sidewalks? Would that keep pedestrians anchored in the present? Or would that become a safety issue?

What if there was more chalk art on our sidewalks? What if there were more animals on our sidewalks?

This may be controversial but what about more mimes?

Of course we do not need all these things to be fully present but sometimes they can be helpful. Sometimes I like to pretend that I am walking down a street for the very first time even though I’ve walked down that street 837 times. I’ve found there always seems to be something that I never noticed before. It is a fun game to play — and not just for those who cannot afford to travel to distant lands.

We can walk down a street or we can travel down a street. Every day can be an adventure.

Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved.

Speaking of streets…