If you want to be more observant and thoughtful, but can’t press pause altogether, at least slow down.

Following a surgical procedure a month ago, I have substituted walking for swimming, running, and cycling. It’s been a great break, because I see so much more than when I’m running at 6.5mph or cycling at 16.5mph.

I walk two times slower than I run, but because of some sort of exponential magic, I see at least four times as much.

I see the sale prices for the furniture in Seldens. The original exorbitant prices and the still shockingly high 30% off prices. I see the homeless guy sleeping on the sidewalk, is in fact, alive. I see the blossoming of the now more natural Capital Lake as a bofo bird sanctuary. And I see the growing grass in the lake near the Marathon Park bridge and wonder if it’s going to gum up the tidal flow.

I see political slogans on telephone poles and political graffiti on just about everything. I see other walkers and their dogs. I see intensely political cars in the food coop parking lot. While walking on WestBay Drive, I see an entrance into the woods for the first time despite having cycled and ran by it a hundred times. Then I’m deep in a forest uber close to my crib digging trails carpeted in leaves for the first, but not last time. I see restaurants repeatedly and speculate on their financial well-being based upon how full they are or aren’t.

Best of all, I see just how beautiful my tiny upper left-hand corner of the world is and I have even more gratitude for living here. Even when the 10-day forecasts look like shite this time of year.

Today I will walk to the library to pick up this book. Then I’ll pop over to the Plum Street Y where I will lift mad weights.* One of the coolest byproducts of my forced slowing down is that I’m able to take pictures in ways that I can’t or don’t while running and cycling**.

Here is some of the bounty that’s resulted from my forced slowing down. Let’s call this gallery, most simply, Olympia, Washington.

*Remember, everyone fibs at least once a day.

**Facial recognition with my cycling sunglasses on is way better with my new iPhone, so maybe my cycling photog game will improve next season. That was my main excuse for my underwhelming picture taking–Belgium aside.

Postscript: The new header, Mount Rainier waking up, was taken this morning from the kitchen.