Journeys and destinations

It's funny how you can forget a whole evening out but remember one important moment from it, something someone said and the way it made you feel, a telling look in someone's eye, a secret shared, a great plan that was formulated and the music that was playing at the time. The brain edits out all the unimportant stuff about how you got to that point and what happened afterwards. It decides which bits will become your memories, the bits you would stick in a photo album, the bits that guide you and move you to the next place in your life.

But it's the journeys from place to place where you (or I, anyway) do a lot of thinking and processing and decision-making. These are the times when your feet are carrying you along and they know where to take you, so your mind is free to wander. I guess that must be why I've been walking everywhere lately - there's been a lot to think about. I've been underestimating the power of walking and cold air and being alone with my thoughts. When you try to work things through by talking to people, they often get warped by questions and watering down of information and wrong advice, and some of the time the people you talk to are only trying to extract gossip.

Thinking while walking puts things right into perspective. Once you've made a decision on your own and you have the confidence to go with it and you don't listen to anyone else, you can make anything happen. It's been that sort of week. And today I breezed into town and walked myself into a few places I would never have gone until recently, but I needn't have worried at all, and my life is much better off for it.

Never mind therapy, just follow your feet.