An ordinary day in Piedmont Park

An Ordinary Day

Most of us walk through life so quickly and often, especially now, with our heads down in our phones. One of the ways I combat this for myself is by taking lots of walks. 

I walk my dog every day and then whenever possible, I try to walk with friends or take a quick walk on my own. 

If I'm walking with a friend, we're usually talking but I try to point out beautiful things along the way. 

If I'm walking alone, I do my best to slow down and notice things. It's hard sometimes because I'm naturally a fast walker and I'm always thinking about the NEXT thing I have to get done!

Ugh. Do you do that to yourself too?

I was reading about walking meditations for an article I was writing recently. It's basically where you just slow down and pay close attention to everything while you're walking.

It's something I do when I'm specifically on a photo walk - just noticing everything -  but when I'm walking somewhere for a purpose, it's easy to forget.

Walking meditation is good for slowing down, taking that breath, and working on rolling back any free-floating anxiety that may be lingering around. 

There Are No Ordinary Days

One of the things I've noticed through photography is that there are no ordinary days. There's always something extraordinary in the ordinary. 

The tree in Piedmont Park is an ordinary scene but taken in the fading light of a beautiful fall day, it's transformed into something amazing.

I also loved the little dog running out of the frame in the lower left-hand corner. It's a little surprise I saw when I was editing the photo. 

Speaking of ordinary days turned extraordinary...

Middle-of-the-Night Ringing Doorbell

I had a super busy weekend that turned strange at 2:30 in the morning on Sunday when someone was frantically ringing my doorbell. Oh gosh. 

All the worst thoughts were spinning through my mind. 

I came out of my bedroom, the dog was barking, my daughter (who was staying with me and needed to catch an 8 am flight) came out of her room. 

We stood there looking at each other wondering if we were about to have a home invasion. 

I have a glass window on my door with a poster on the window but I peered through the edge and saw a young woman standing on the porch shivering, ringing the doorbell. 

I asked her what she needed. 

She said she had a fight with her boyfriend, and he hit her. 

Yikes. 

She didn't have a phone and she wanted to go home. After talking to her through the door for a few minutes, I told my daughter to have her phone ready to call 911 and I walked out on the porch. 

It was a scary moment, and my adrenaline was pumping from being woken up from sleep to the doorbell ringing over and over. 

While I was talking to her, her boyfriend came out of the apartments across the street and yelled some things at us. Dude. You're not making your case.  

I called a Lyft for her and waited until it came and she was safely inside. I couldn't go to sleep until I saw she had arrived at her destination. 

I couldn't live with myself if I had ignored that young woman on my porch and found out later something bad happened to her, especially in light of the fact that earlier in the year some guys tried to kidnap two young women on my street. 

It's scary opening your door in the middle of the night, though. My daughter and I talked about it, and I should have called 911 as soon as I heard the doorbell at that hour. 

Hopefully, I won't face that situation again, but if I do, I'll call 911 first. 

So...there is no such thing as an ordinary day, is there?

I hope you're feeling ready for Christmas and aren't too anxious. I know the holidays cause a lot of anxiety for many people, especially during these crazy pandemic times. 

May you feel peace this December.

xoxo,
Susan 

I call this photo An Ordinary Day, and I added it to the website here.