perspective shift
My birthday lilacs, three years ago. Every April, I start looking for blooming lilacs!
Today is a warm day. There haven’t been many of those in my town yet this year, but spring is springing. New life.
The rolling hills outside my office windows are covered in purple flowers. There is seemingly just as much purple as there is green — and even the green is a tiny miracle! Because this is a desert mountain town, and those hills are going to be covered in dried up brownish yellow weeds most of the year long. But we’ve had bright green all over for WEEKS. (everyday magic!)
If I look even further out, past these closest green and purple hills, there are taller mountains, the edge of town’s mountaintop bowl, and those have dustings of the brightest yellow across them — more flowers.
Lifting your head and changing your perspective is an invaluable tool.
I walk with my dog most mornings before I leave for work: wake up by 5 AM, get dressed, go to the gym to get my lifting in, come home and walk Blue Dog. Usually I walk a quick route around maybe a half-mile loop my house is on. Sometimes I walk the opposite direction on a straightaway route, and go a little ways, turn around, and come back. Either way, they’re both just paved streets in my neighborhood.
This morning, I took that second route, but then instead of turning around and walking back the same way per usual, I turned and went up a little trail on the mountain, off the road, and straight up the steep edge. We’d walked around a corner from my house, so unless I turned around and followed the road back, this mountain was all that was between me and home. I decided to just go up the mountain and down the other side instead of taking the street back. I took Blue’s leash off and let her roam and run around, and I huffed and puffed all the way to the top. Then back down, and to my house to shower and get off to work.
It was so nice to be outside, and it was already warm enough, even at 7 AM, to take my overcoat off. Walking through the flowers and away from houses and asphalt was a lovely little treat and great way to start my Monday before heading into my office job for the day.
It felt like spring. A moment of noticing. Taking a different path than most of my mornings. Climbing up, up, up, high above everything, looking down and around, and seeing where I would usually be, from a different perspective. Taking in the flowers and the warmth and the colors. Just life.
Some of the tiny wildflowers on the hill behind our house!
Spotted on my walk off our normal path today 💜
