First Baptist Church of Herndon

Observations

Linda Soller | May 16, 2016

Continuing on the topic of walking, when people hear I walk the same route each day in my same neighborhood they often ask isn’t it boring. Actually it is far from boring. I say to them, “Why would it be boring? It’s never the same two days in a row.” The look on their face is often one of confusion. So I try to explain that I like observing my neighborhood as I walk. This is not the same as prying or being nosey. It is the act observing my surroundings. For example, in the spring my neighbors’ yards serve as inspiration on the one hand and comfort on the other. The ones which inspire are blooming and are well tended. The comforting ones look more like my yard. I like to think they are being allowed to just be natural, which is a way of saying not so well tended. Either way I get lots of good ideas and enjoy the view.

Just last week, on one of the non-rainy mornings, I was walking along and looked up just in time to see two street signs on the same pole looking as though they were aligned one over the other. In a matter of a few more feet I could see they were actually perpendicular just as they should be. I am sure there is a scientific reason for this illusion, something to do with distance and angles. For me I just thought it was interesting how I saw one thing, when the reality was something very different. On the way along the very same section of street I saw two trees which looked like they had been Christmas trees planted in the yard only a few yards from each other. One was true to form, evergreen and flourishing. The other was holding its shape, but was dead, brown and ready to crumble. I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened which resulted in one adapting and one failing. Their environments were so close, but seemed to have offered very different impacts. I wondered if there had been something, anything, the owner could have done which would have given the dead one a better shot at surviving. As I neared home I saw a Rhododendron with a bloom so deep in color, I thought, I had never seen that color bloom before. Low and behold as I turned up my drive, there in my next door neighbor’s front yard was the twin to that beautiful Rhododendron. How had I not seen it before?

Life, like my walking route, can be routine without being boring. What do you see and what is real? What makes the people around you flourish while others whither? Is there someone who is that rare bloom, never noticed before, but living right next door. At the end of the day, what are your observations?

Have a great week!    :o)  Linda