Because of being physically active in summer with more time to ride my horse, stacking hay, fixing up the house, I had stopped my daily morning walk. I have been getting plenty of exercise, but I missed the gift of quiet thinking time that a walk in the country on a cool morning offers.
This morning, as soon as I had let the horses out in their pasture, I went back up to my office, did my morning routine, looked at the day’s plan which I wrote last night and thought “never mind the plan- it’s too nice a morning to be inside” and decided to go for a walk.
It is an amazing example of animal perception, but as soon as I made that decision, Mike our dog knew we were going for a walk. Usually, when I get up from my desk to go downstairs for any reason, to make a cup of coffee or get something, he will look up, may or may not come with me and seem totally disinterested. This morning, before I said anything to him, he was bouncing around with excitement. When I went to get my running watch his excitement increased, he was spinning in circles as I put my running shoes on and almost jumping out of his skin by the time I got to the back door. Can you believe he is 9 years old?
If only, we could get our non-verbal signals to work as well with humans. Or maybe that would be dangerous.
Setting out with the sun just coming up at a brisk 7 C (44 F) we walked for just over 30 minutes along our quiet country road, only being disturbed once by a passing pickup truck. Except for a variety of birds, no wild life today, although I did see a deer and her fawn yesterday.
All the wheat in our area has been combined, the straw baled, some fields still dotted with large square or round bales looking like forgotten, toy building blocks abandoned in a giant’s playground. Corn (maize) and soya beans are looking magnificent.
The only sad part of the walk was when turning at my halfway marker tree and heading West towards home, the sun at my back highlighted the first maple leaves starting to change colour, some oranges, and browns. It looks like just the earliest variety, but still a stark reminder that summer is nearly over, 2013 will soon be three-quarters gone and much still to accomplish this year. A reminder that despite a solid commitment to my goals at the beginning of the year and daily reinforcement to my determination to stay on track, if I am honest, I have to admit that I have not made the progress in some areas that I should have.
Time stands still for no one, it’s a fundamental law of putting something off for a day doesn’t seem like a big deal itself, but that one day can so easily start a habit and before we know it the year is mostly gone and we haven;t achieved a fraction of what we could or should have. Now we must deal with the consequences of those days when we put off doing things we should have done.
How is your year progressing? Have you achieved almost 75% of what you planned for the year?
Wishing you an extraordinary life.
p.s. Some readers have asked me why I no longer publish posts about politics, my contrarian perspective and current affairs. I do, but I publish them on one of my other blogs at PeterWright.biz. On that blog, I challenge the conventional wisdom on many subjects, but particularly, political correctness, the assault on personal freedom in the West, the West’s hypocrisy in its treatment of Rhodesia and South Africa and its arrogance in expecting the rest of the world to conform to its own high standards. Don’t go there if you are politically liberal or see the world through rose-tinted glasses. If you do go there and feel compelled to post a comment either agreeing or disagreeing with me, I will be happy to publish it, I encourage debate but will consign abusive and obscene comments to the waste bin.
2013 has been one of the ‘fastest’ years in my life. Seems like January 1st was just a few short weeks ago. Several friends have said the same.
Some of the trees have started to turn here as well. VERY early for us. Leaves usually turn much later than this. I am afraid we are going to have a very cold, snowy, and stormy winter. We had very short and cool summer too. So much for global warming.
As for goals, now that I am retired I keep them to a minimum and fairly easy. If I get two blog posts up a week I feel I have met my goals.
I am finding the older I get the faster the years go by. I guess because I have so much I want to do before there is no time left. I look as every day as an opportunity and make it the best day I can. I would say I have met most of my goals this year. I run a dachshund in agility at trials. My goal was to get into Excellent and I did. Pretty tough goal for a small dog like a dachshund. Business has been good and I am right on track. Make the best of everyday.