Londoners love our parks – most of us live fairly close to one (I once heard that we had more parks per capita than any other city, but that may have been another of my mother’s stories!), but there are a lot of them and each one is utterly individual. We live close to Ruskin Park and usually I am there as part of a run or walking through the park to or from a train or bus. Hurrying. Going somewhere.
I’m usually going somewhere, doing something. I’m not very skilled at taking time off or not working or not doing, but yesterday afternoon I went for a walk. A really slow walk. I’ve been listening to the podcast Philosophize This (which I really like because it’s enthusiastic, engaging and not at all academic – also Stephen West loves Simone de Beauvoir, so that works for me) and the next podcast that came up (I listen randomly) was on Thoreau. Walden Pond. Living deliberately. Civil Disobedience.
I was walking deliberately. A conscious choice to be there, to see the park, to be aware of being me seeing the park. I stopped a lot. I felt in my own skin. Mindfulness, running, therapy – at the moment, I’m feeling closer to being in my own skin, all of me, fully me, more often, than I can recall, perhaps ever. This too shall pass, but I’m enjoying it while it lasts. Noticing it while it lasts. (Noticing that noticing sometimes makes it pass.)
And I took these photos of close up things. Crouching, bending, stretching to get to their level. Paying attention to the light and the colour. Autumn is a glorious season.
Not Writing But Blogging 
They are lovely photos and it sounds like you had a great time. I think I may be the opposite of you in that I am not a ‘do’er’. If I am not at work I can just ‘be’ for many hours, in fact whole days if they are available. It is something that never fails to fascinate, those innate differences in how human beings are, how we exist. Friends, the really ‘busy’ ones like you, have often said they would like to learn to ‘be’ like me, but I cant help thinking we don’t really have a choice how we are. I don’t know if we are made this way or become this way through circumstance, design, happenings, but I do know I have never felt I am able to change how I am. Sometimes I would love to be more like you, the do’ers, but if there is an ignition key I don’t seem to know where to find it. I guess I will continue to ‘be’, and value that, and continue to enjoy hearing of others’ doings, like yours. 🙂
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Thanks Sarah, yes I too have friends who say they’d like to be more doing, more like me. I agree we maybe have a ‘natural’ pattern, but I also know that some balance is useful, not least in replenishing my energy to DO!!
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This is a lovely and timely post.
I’m pretty sure you’re right about green spaces per capita, and I’m very thankful for them. I can reach half a dozen of them from my front door (West Norwood) if I’m in the mood for a lengthy walk (Ruskin Park isn’t quite one of them), and they all give me great joy. And not uncoincidentally, ideas tend to come more often on the walks than while sitting at my desk.
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yes, I get thoughts when walking and running that I never can when at my desk. the trick, of course, is to make sure there’s enough desk time to get the work done as well as the walking!
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