What Grows on my Walk

Every morning, I walk three miles. Sometimes it’s five miles, but most of the time, it’s three. It’s walking meditation–where I am aware and in the moment. It’s interesting to see what I notice and what shows up every morning–an ever-changing show of natural lessons that reveal themselves.

Here’s what I saw this morning that gave me food for thought:

In the desert, grass is hard to come by. This grass was not only growing in our sandy soil, it was four feet off the ground, and inside a Stop sign pipe. Now, that’s determination! Even more incredible, the grass in the pipe seems to be healthier than the grass on the ground!

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All winter, I noticed a house that had a swatch of green grass. Really green. Preternaturally green. One day, I stopped and took a closer look. Sure enough, it wasn’t real grass, it was fake grass. Plastic.

The only real grass in this front yard is the small weed in the front, just-right-of-center in the above photo. That just-mowed look is strips of plastic.

Then I took a closer look. In the middle of the sea of plastic, was. . . a weed.

Not only was it a real weed, the owner had sprayed his plastic with weed remover. I wish I’d been able to talk to him when he found a real weed on his fake grass. A few days earlier, I’d taken a photo of the weed, but it blended in too well. This photo, of plastic and the war of the weeds, is far more eloquent.

Maybe if he’d seen the determination of the Stop sign weed, he would have caved and let it grow.

A weed, of course, is just what we call it. It’s wild grass, or a plant in a place we don’t want it. I love making these discoveries on my morning walk. I’m not going to draw any conclusions for you. You can do that so well on your own.

--Quinn McDonald is a walker, writer, and creativity coach who strives to live in the present moment.

 

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