photo credit: Olof S on flickr

I think everyone should spend more time walking around the places they often drive by.  You notice a lot more when you’re on your feet going at a slower pace, whether it’s stores you never knew existed or hidden pathways you never went down. Plus, when you see things from much closer, you’re more likely to notice things that you wouldn’t have ever caught otherwise.  It’s an entirely new way of appreciating the very same place you always thought you knew so well, or exploring a foreign place.

My mom and I took a nice little walk when we were waiting for the car to get fixed up at the body shop last week.  As we casually made our way down the quiet neighborhood, we noted all kinds of cool plants that she may want to plant in our own yard.  I noted that there were a lot of the same brand two or three brands of cars around there and that each stand-alone house actually housed two families.  We saw a squirrel hanging out in the shade of a tree and trees with spikes growing on the trunks, which inspired us to think of a solution to prevent animals from stealing the fruits that my mom so laboriously planted.  We noticed the architecture of the houses and the vibrant colors of the neighborhood.  I saw the mailman delivering mail with his bag and we quickly noted that he did so because there were no mailboxes in that area.  We also saw how the first street we went down seemed to have a far nicer feel than the next street, which had more run-down houses and less shady trees to fill the space.  All of that, and we got some nice exercise too.

The same thing goes fora  lot of streets you may tend to rush by.  You may not notice that the store on the corner sells small trinkets in the midst of magazines or furniture.  You may never know that in the display case of another store, is the very elusive bit of jewelry you’ve been hunting for.  Or that one shop has amazing brass handles that are an artwork to themselves, or another is hidden so far from the road you never would have found it otherwise.  You can wander into little courtyards lined with small shops selling a variety of random items, or even find a cute restaurant tucked away in the corner.  A medicine shop sits next to a book shop that holds monthly book readings.  A map of the town waits for you at one intersection, wondering if you’ll ever discover that it will show you a history of the streets you frequent (having not been changed in a decade).

It’s amazing what you can find if you ditched the wheels and let your own two feet guide you.