A walk through a small village.

This was not supposed to be today’s post. I had today’s post all planned, I knew which image I was going to use, what books I was going to talk about, but then I changed my mind. It didn’t suit my mood. I considered  writing the post I had planned for next week, but then I went for a walk, just down the road, and I realised I wanted to write about that.

Either ‘The unpopular opinions book tag’ or ‘The ten books that made me’ will be published Sunday/Monday. 

I live, and have always lived, in a tiny village. Sometimes I find it friendly, reassuring and safe, at other times I find it claustrophobic and frustrating. Today, I felt the latter. It wasn’t the village’s fault; my emotions were all over the place today. I was feeling fidgety, on edge, but also as though I wanted to close the curtains and curl up with a blanket and a film, impractical in this weather I know. So I watched a couple of episodes of NCIS: LA, sat outside, tried to read: failed, attempted to be productive: failed. As a last attempt to make myself feel a little less ‘snappy’ I decided to take the dog – Ginny – for a walk. It definitely helped.

There’s essentially only one route through the village, so I know it very well. With my state of mind, I was expecting that to annoy me, but a funny thing happened; I found myself watching Ginny. I stopped when she stopped; it forced me to slow down. I looked at the flowers, counted petals and leaves; I stroked the top of a thistle – I’ve always wondered if the top was a soft as it looked  – I picked a Granny-jumped-out-of-bed and made her jump, I even went to the park, something I don’t usually do. It was great; I watched a woodpecker hop around.

As I walked, I noticed the changes that had happened, were going on. The changing flowers, development of houses and fields I had walked past thousands of times before and never really paid much attention to . I even found myself stopping at the entrance to a field that has just been turned into a driveway, and realising that I was going to miss the field and the sheep that had lived in it. When I got home, I felt better.

If there’s a point to this post, I suppose it this: slow down every now and again, allow yourself to really look at your surroundings even the ones you expect to know like the back of your hand; it may improve your day.