Saturday’s are becoming my day of rest – the only day I can have a lie in!! Honey the Dog must have been super tired after performing last night as ‘The AMAZING Honey’ as neither of us woke up until 11.30am 🙂
A pretty lazy day until we went out for our afternoon walk on Arthur’s Seat. Really sunny and quite hot – it was the first day that I wore my summer Vivobarefoot shoes, which have a super thin 1mm thick puncture resistant sole! I was aware how grounding they are, really feeling the grass, rocks and earth below. Although it will take a while to get used to them again, as I nearly trip over and stubbed my toe twice 😉
We took new walk, exploring another area, heading a lot higher up than usual,
As I climbed over the hill and came into the open, I was suddenly struck by the stunning view of the blue sea in the distance.
The blue of the sea was so rich, against the blueness of the sky. It was an amazing sight.
I took some photos, but they just weren’t doing it justice. So I gave up and simply enjoyed it all.
Just like yesterday, I tried to admire nature – the things that haven’t changed.
I found myself often standing and watching birds freely flying – marvelling in their glory and beauty, soaring through the sky.
At times it felt as if it was the first time I had watched birds fly. With the sun on my face. I found I was enjoying each moment – moment by moment – with a newness.
I wondered, perhaps being in the complete moment, watching and being, as if it was my first and last time, was how to feel freedom?
Is this is how I could experience newness and freedom, yet still live the same daily habits and routines? Connecting to the freedom within?
Experiencing as many moments as possible, as if it is the first time?
Experiencing as many moments as possible, as if it is the last time?
Many years ago I read a book called ‘A Year to Live‘ by Stephen Levine. The book is an experiment to live your life for one year as if this is your last. Many people, who have been given a diagnosis of a terminal illness, often say that once they know they have a time limit on their life, they live more fully and more presently in the moment.
As most of us don’t have a ‘defined end point’ of our life, it is said that we miss so many moments and experiences through life. Never fully appreciating and valuing them, until near the end.
This book, invites the reader to live their life, for one year, as if it is their last. It takes you through different stages to explore, as the year progresses. I stuck with it for about five months, but it was pretty powerful. I remember touching snow and thinking/imagining this was the last time I was ever going to experience snow. It did create a deep presence and enjoyment of moments in life.
Perhaps, I need to find that book and try the experiment again (so many books I want to re-read!).
On our walk today, I realised, that I don’t start thinking about my blog until I am on my daily exercise. I then start mulling over the threads of the last few days and comments from people. I find myself, giving you an inner commentary, inner chat as if I am writing the blog. As if you are all listening! I just became aware of this today, even though I have probably been doing for quite a few days!
The inner dialogue/chat that we have with ourselves is really interesting, don’t you think?
As I walked on my way home, Honey the Dog, dragged me into Easter Greens, a vegan shop, that we stop by most days now. The people who work there know Honey and usually give her a vegan treat. They have a clever way to ensure social distancing. They place a table in the doorway. So people queue up the street and when we come to the table, we ask for what we want and the staff go and get it. No more browsing! All payments are by card, so stops contact with cash. Honey the Dog goes under the table and gets attention from the staff.
As we continued up the road towards home, I found myself trying to look at everything from a perspective of newness. As if this was the first time I was walking up the street. I passed an older gentleman, rummaging through the bins looking for scraps of food. I was tempted to give him some cash, but then decided not to, not sure if I had any money on me. I stopped on the corner of my street and admired the tree. It is now starting to get shoots of green on it and all too soon it will be in full leaf. It felt good to notice the tree, which I pass so many times a day.
I headed up towards my flat and a car went by.
At the bottom of my street there is a graveyard, many cars drive down the short road looking for a parking space. Then turn round and carry back up. It suddenly crossed my mind, that I could offer the driver of the car my parking space. My flats have a private parking space and I don’t own a car. As the car slowly went by, his window was open, so I shouted at him “are you looking for somewhere to park?”. He said he was. So I told him he could park in my parking space. He said he lived just round the corner and was massively grateful.
His name was Philippe and he said if I wanted him to move the car, I could leave a note on his windscreen.
I don’t know, why or how, I was suddenly becoming really generous – but I hope it is because I was noticing the newness of each moment.
So how did you get on with the quiz – Edinburgh Pubs? Fi knows the west of Scotland, not Edinburgh. So only could get three answers.
So the answers come from my WhatsApp Group and mainly Hannah, who featured in an earlier blog as a horse – she was the rider!
However, Fi has redeemed herself by providing a new quiz 🙂 – Areas of Glasgow. I can think of at least five regular readers of my blog who either live in Glasgow or used to live in Glasgow, so this maybe better for more people!
If anyone else has a quiz for your local area, please share with me and I will post in the blog. I am running low on more quizzes!
Tomorrow, is already lining up to be quite busy. Meditation Group in the morning, 10am to 12pm. A Skype/Zoom meeting with my friend Ivan, who lives in Berlin at 12.30pm. Then a Zoom meeting with my friend Majk at 3pm, to discuss helping him out with his virtual album launch next week. Then my daily walk, where I will write my blog (in my head) and tell you it (telepathically)!
Thanks for reading.
Hope you are all having a great Easter Weekend 🙂
Jim & Honey xx