Rambling in(to) the Woods

I’m in the middle of writing a few longer posts, one of which I planned to finish today. It’ll have to wait a day or two, though, because life got—is getting—in the way.

“Got in the way” in the little-used positive sense of that phrase. In recent weeks/months, life hasn’t been an impediment to my checking things off the to-do list I meticulously (OK, obsessively) craft each and every morning but rather an opening, an opportunity to indulge my curiosity and expand my horizons. Indeed, it’s become a thing lately, this being too busy with and/or distracted by tasks that pop up out of the blue to check everything off that ridiculously long list. More and more frequently, I’m able to practise the mental flexibility necessary to examine what I really want and need to accomplish—what’ll help me most in the long run—and leave the rest for later. Hence my decision to push aside all guilt so that I could fully experience my and my husband’s excursion on Monday (and sew and read and write this short little disjointed reflection today instead of frustrating myself trying to wrap up the aforementioned blog entries).

This seems like a good time to shift the focus of my rambling and begin rambling about one of this past weekend’s rambles.

Monday was a holiday here in Canada, and my husband and I took advantage of it by trying out the auto-share membership we recently purchased. When we reserved the car, we didn’t have a specific destination in mind; our goal was simply to get out of the city. To wander (ramble, if you will). On Sunday, we landed on the idea of checking out an accessible trail an hour or so away.

Yet another aside (in my defence, however, this is a post about rambling and thus warrants any and all digressions): it’s so great to have reached a place in which hopping in a car for no reason other than wanting a change of scenery isn’t a big deal. We’ve come a long way, babies.

The drive was lovely. In the many years that went by without my getting in a conventional vehicle, I managed to forgot how nice it is to stare out the window and daydream, to listen to the radio and invent backstories for the anonymous strangers occupying the houses and buildings that abut the highway. In truth, I’d have been satisfied if all we’d done was survey suburbs and farmland.

The trail was a pretty great bonus. Spending time in the woods made me realize how much I’ve missed being in nature. The quiet, the smell, the foliage. Light trickling through a verdant canopy. We “hiked” the accessible loop and found a bench, where we stopped for a while to soak it all in and appreciate where we were and how much progress we’ve made.

And then, after grabbing lunch, we rambled our way home.