Katie's View of Walking...

Hellooooo!

How is everybody doing today? I’m good – really good, actually, so I wanted to share some of the random thoughts that I’ve been having, over the past couple of days.

Our Waukesha, Wis. spring “just might” be happening, right now, as we speak. We have a dove nested in our basketball hoop, and a multitude of birds at our feeder each day. Our trees are blooming, and dandelions are popping up. The sky is blue, the grass is very green, and the temperature is … (looks around as if to tell a secret) in the 60’s! Woo hoo!  In fact, the weather is so nice that it has prompted me to “Get up offa my thing,” and go for a walk – outside! In my neighborhood! In fact, I went yesterday and I went today.

In the past, I’ve questioned how I could make walking in my own neighborhood more interesting. Some of you know what I’m talking about, right? As with so many things in our lives, we often do what’s most comfortable – walk downhill first, so that once we make our loop, we’ll be heading downhill again and avoid walking uphill at all – or whatever your equivalent to that scenario may be. I’ve even considered driving to a new neighborhood, parking, and walking around there instead, which is actually a fun thing to do! It’s just that some days we simply want to take our walk and get back to whatever work or fun is calling our name that particular day.

I’ve always thought it fascinating that Todd and I almost always go uphill when we go somewhere in our car. Nothing is 100%, but most of the time, it’s true. On the flip side, our neighbor friends, who live just three houses to our south, almost always drive downhill when they go somewhere in their car. So even though we may shop at the same grocery store, we tend to take a different route to get there. Our friends would ask something like, “Did you see what’s going on at the park?” And we’d shake our heads no. Or we’d say, “Did you see what they’re doing at the school?” And they’d shake their heads no. For neighbors who live on the exact same block, and have the exact same destination, we often see things in our everyday-worlds quite differently.

So, I’ve decided to challenge myself. And, if you’re good at reading in between the lines, I’ve decided to challenge you too! How about the next time you head out on your normal everyday route, to do your normal everyday things, do something else…!? Shake things up a little! Walk on the other side of the street! Walk uphill first instead of the opposite! Or, if you really want to shake things up, do both! Take a new route altogether! If you only have 30 minutes, walk 15 minutes in a new direction, pivot, and walk back. You’ll see a whole new view in a very short period of time – all within a mile or so of home.  

When I told someone that I was going to write these thoughts, they asked me if I meant it all literally, or if this ‘walking scenario’ was some sort of metaphor for viewing life. As with most of my random bloggy thoughts, my answer to their question, of course, is “Yes!”

Have great Spring days!

Katie Kolberg Memmel is the author of two books: “Five Fingers, Ten Toes… A Mother’s Story of Raising a Child Born with a Limb Difference,” and “Silly Stories and Sentimental Stuff.” Both are available through Amazon in electronic format, as well as in paperback versions. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_13?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=katie+kolberg+memmel&sprefix=Katie+Kolberg%2Caps%2C198