Episode 92: A Beautiful Walk Around Your Neighborhood
A walk around the neighborhood can be a joyous surprise, friendly dogs and children, music and flowers. Enjoy this walk around your very own neighborhood, and let's be neighborly to one another.
The way the sunlight falls on the sidewalk in late Spring, people are out walking their dogs, the air feels vibrant, alive.
It feels good to wander freely, aimlessly almost. You never tire of discovering the place that you live, the different houses and sidewalks all over your neighborhood.
Everyone’s front yards are a bit different. You pass by the house with a hundred cactuses, the friendly cat in the front yard rolling around in the dirt.
The new house they’re building is almost done and you can see the different rooms taking shape, the living room where the new family will gather, the kitchen where they’ll make dinner. You wonder about them and who they are.
Wave hello to a neighbor or two, you’ve met most of them and the ones you know smile warmly, throwing up a friendly hand to say hi.
You run into a man walking three small poodles, all identical in size, tripping over each other to greet you.
You can see the kids have been playing outside the school, there’s chalk drawings all over the pavement that you carefully avoid stepping on.
There’s the funny crack in the sidewalk that looks like a dinosaur, you step over it carefully.
At every street corner you look up and down, deciding as you go which way to turn.
Even the passing cars feel friendly, people are arriving home from work at the end of a long day, turning off the street into different driveways.
Looking up at the sky, you notice that it’s so golden, so warm and beautiful as the barest hint of night begins slipping in, you feel so peaceful watching the sunset sing a last hurrah.
Music echoes down the street from a backyard barbecue, you can hear laughter and voices, the live band playing gently above it all.
You stop at the corner store to buy some milk to take home, and after counting out the exact change, you feel the cool weight of the carton in your hand as you step back out into the heat of the day.
The old men who always hang out together are sitting on a front porch playing a game, talking and laughing together while watching a soccer game on tv.
Walking by jasmine growing over a wall, you stop to enjoy the scent, inhaling deeply and looking closely at the small white flowers.
As you pass by some houses, the front doors are open, or the living room curtains are drawn back and you can see people living their lives, watching tv, reading books, preparing dinner.
At the end of one culdesac, you see a bunch of the neighborhood kids playing kickball, with makeshift bases and plenty of shouting and jostling.
Your own front door looks so inviting, welcoming you home after your long walk, ready for sleep and and end of the day’s adventures.
Happiness Spells Podcast is a five minute list of all the greatest pleasures and smallest joys in life. Increase your capacity for positivity, curiosity and gratitude.
This episode of Happiness Spells was written, arranged, recorded and produced by Amanda Meyncke in Temecula, CA. Our music is by Chris Zabriskie.