A Walk in the Rain…

I have often thought of Laurent’s advice to me the other day these early mornings. If I can’t sleep, I get out of the house and exercise. I am still only sleeping about five hours a night, but it is a much more fitfull and unbroken sleep. I donned my poncho, polypropylene rain pants, wool socks, water resistant hiking boots, grabbed an umbrella, and set out for an early morning walk before sunrise. The abrupt patter of the rain drops upon my umbrella were so comforting and sleep inducing this morning. Thoughts of my warm and inviting bed played tantalizingly in my thoughts as I traveled.

As I walked through my quaint little neighborhood in the predawn hours, the harsh metal halide glow of the street lights lit my way creating circular oasis’ of light upon the streets ahead of me. Many of the neighborhood dogs barked at this seemingly early morning intruder; a time when only the stray alley cats and the occasional creature of the night would be stirring. A few early morning risers would ride by in their cars and look at me oddly. I would have to carefully step aside off the road to avoid the spray of water from their tires.

“What is he doing walking in this cold downpour?” I know they must have thought. “Is he vagrant? Is he homeless? What a strange fellow.”

I am no stranger to such thoughts and stares lately. I thought as I walked how much we live in a car centric culture these days. It is actually odd to see people walking through this small town; mainly only poor minority people who can’t afford a vehicle. Driver’s in their cars comfortably isolated from the world around them busily scurry from home to work to shops as I walk these lonesome streets. Isolated from the wonders of the sights and sounds this small southern town offers.

One fascinating thing I have noticed in my walks these past few days is how much of the world and the environment you miss when riding in a car. You begin to notice things you’ve never before seen when walking. Life passes by you much more slowly and you take things in much more deeply. I have lived here all my adult life and I have discovered more interesting things lately about this quaint southern town in the past few days than I have discovered in all the cumulative years of my short life span. Little wonders like the 1915 monument to a local business entrepreneur from the turn of the century in the town center. The many disused park benches scattered throughout town that make comfortable little perches to sit and watch life unfold while you have a smoke and a quick drink of liquid sustenance. The beautiful hundreds-of-year-old oaks still propagating town unscathed by the harsh cut of a chainsaw and the tree removal service's trimming blades. All this makes for interesting little vignettes to explore and enjoy. Things I have never noticed closely before as the views of the town flashed by in a whir from the windows of the solitude of a car.