Walking on Wednesday ~ Not the Vacation I Wanted

I could say I took a vacation of sorts, just not the vacation I wanted. I took a vacation from my run/walks. I took a vacation from even just walking. I hadn't been exercising in about 2 weeks! 

This morning, as I sat in front of the computer, a usual morning event, I scrolled through FB bored, I checked email finding nothing exciting, I avoided my spreadsheet knowing full well there was lots of work to be done, I sat looking at my Artfire and Zibbet shops thinking of all the listing I had to do. I kept pushing out of my head the bills coming due and the panic of how the heck we were going to pay them. 

Suddenly I knew my exercise vacation was over. I needed to get out there and clear my head. I think my companion really missed our walks too.  So off we went. But dang it was cold out.

Frozen bird bath and everything. Looking at this reminded me of my mosaic projects. Another bunch of projects waiting to be done. I didn't even finish getting the tiles from the bird bath!

The dog was much more enthusiastic than me. I was just plain cold. Frost was everywhere. I was only feeling like going back inside. The whole way down the driveway thoughts like 'This sucks', and 'I am cold', with plenty of 'I just want to go back in'. 

This was the view when I got to the road. More Frost. Ugh. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I happened to be out at the time parents are dropping off their children to the primary school at the top of the hill. This meant I had to concentrate on not getting hit by cars, making sure the dog didn't chase the cars and get hit, and suddenly scoop up some poop. 

Just the distractions I needed to get up the hill and start really feeling the benefits of this exercise thing again. Now the thinking was, 'hey this isn't that bad', and 'it's actually nice that it is so early still'. I was finding motivation for exercise, PLUS finding thoughts of things I had to get done not so daunting. I got over this hurdle, the rest didn't seem really so difficult. I just had to get down the proverbial long driveway and up that first hill. 

I was back at it, back exercising and feeling good about it. I was even taking pictures along the way, even though it was just with my phone. It meant I was noticing things either way. Noticing things other than the stresses in my life. 

When I found this poor little guy, it stopped me abruptly. He didn't fly off when we came upon him! The dog even pushed her nose into him.

Poor little guy was injured! I thought about picking it up and taking it home. Then I thought of all the animals I already had at home (stress creeping in perhaps), and the fact that touching it would not benefit this guy at all. In the end we just kept going, letting nature take it's course, whatever that may be.  

It was nice to be out in life again, in nature. I was reminded the world keeps going, nothing stops for us, it goes on whether we like it or not. The days go by whether we notice or not. So my little vacation from exercise didn't really accomplish anything. I didn't enjoy life more, I didn't get any more done than I would have if I just took that 30 to 40 minutes and got my walk in. And a vacation from work - what would that accomplish?

Well, I still would love to find out! I think it would accomplish quite a lot. I may find my sanity, I may find relaxation, I may get back to really creating. I have been taking a long break from creating...there is that quilt I have been wanting to make.....

Now I am ready for my real vacation, one where I can work on all my other projects.