My morning walk winds along a path with trees and a wooded area on one side and an athletic field on the other. Once I reach the top of the hill, I come to a busy highway.
Sometimes the noise startles and frazzles my nerves. I had slept deeply last night and wasn’t quite awake as I sauntered up the hill and along the path. The noise from the trucks and cars whizzing by felt like an assault to my still awakening psyche.
Once past the elementary and high school and down the hill the noise usually quiets again as it did today. I felt my body, tense from the rushing of cars and loud noise as they passed, relax and breathe a sigh of relief as I left the highway behind.
On my way back the maintenance man at the elementary school was using a leaf blower to blow the fresh-cut grass from the sidewalks.
I heard myself wonder, “Whatever happened to brooms?”
I then recalled just a week earlier when I’d driven through a small nearby town to see a shopkeeper sweeping the debris from the front of her shop. I enjoyed the feelings it invoked in me— like a meditative state as I watched her go back and forth with the broom across the sidewalk.
Over the weekend I’d swept off our deck from leaves and branches that had fallen after a storm. I love to hear the sound of the bristles going back and forth across the wood planks.
My mind drifted back to the leaf blower blaring along with the man wearing headphones to block out the noise.
Not only was the noise bothering my still awakening self, but I also felt a loss of connecting with that man – even if just to say hi.
I spend a lot of time alone, which I choose, and honestly, what I need to keep myself in balance and grounded. But I also enjoy (on most days) when I encounter someone and can say Hi or Good Morning.
I realized the noise was about so much more than bothering my ears. There was a sense of loss of connection.
Back to thinking about the woman sweeping in front of her shop, I realized seeing her also brought me back to what felt like simpler times. Where life didn’t seem in a hurry all the time. Or full of so much noise and so many distractions.
Once I was back home I put on one of my favorite t-shirts. It says, “Live Simply.” As I write this post I don’t have music playing as I usually do and am instead just enjoying the sounds of nature and the birds outside my writing cottage window.
I sometimes think we don’t even realize what frazzles our nerves and we stay in a perpetuated state of angst. While I was frustrated with the noise I encountered I was reminded again that I have a choice. And so I’m choosing to move at a slower pace today and one with as little noise as possible.
XO,
Barbara
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