My moments of Zen

I have been moving far too little of late and I really should go out and move more with walking or biking as my physical fitness feels almost non-existant at the moment. I admit to getting bored with doing the same old routes over and over again for the past year and so daily walks have become walks once or twice a week, which really is not enough.

Last Friday evening after work I got my butt in gear again for a nice evening walk, this time without Mr Esther who needed a rest. The good thing about walking with Mr Esther is that we catch up and chat and I love that one on one time with him. The good thing about walking on my own is that I notice my surroundings more and even though the route is overly familiar, it sometimes can still make me stop for a few moments and realize again that my small corner of the world is still quite beautiful.

I notice the way the late afternoon sky looks through the branches of leafless trees, I realize that seeing a broken, rusty ruin of a bike in a pond feels like a very Dutch sight, I notice the way the horizon glows at dusk through the trees overlooking the nearby highway, I stare at the moon appearing through the branches of a tree in the slowly darkening sky and I take a moment to admire a young girl in the sunset exercising a horse at the riding school that I pass en route. These moments of Zen, although they happened a few days ago, still carry me today on Monday at noon where I’m trying to not let dissatisfaction win. I’m posting these pictures today to remind myself to hold on to that…

My cats don’t seem to mind the same old, same old routine of life, they still sleep for a large portion of the day on us or on the couch…

… and I take a moment to remind myself that it’s OK to just accept that for now things are just the same old thing. If the cats can do it, I can do it.

It’s not only the same old stuff getting me down, I also harbour all these frustrations about not liking my job, manifesting themselves most strongly on Mondays. Then there are also all the bad things happening in the world (among other things, today I hear that our prime minister and winner of our elections is flirting with the idea of including a small far right party to his coalition – seriously?) and I just need to continue reminding myself that the world during this Corona crisis also still harbours beautiful things like nature and cats living their best lives doing nothing. For today I’ll try to appreciate more little things, like writing this post on my lunch break and drinking the chocolate milk mini-me just brought me. There is always hope for better times, right?