A Different Way Of Seeing The Urban Jungle

Reposted from http://www.avonwalk.org/goto/Paul_Willett
Originally posted May 19, 2010

Aside from the physical exercise & preparation for the September Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Santa Barbara that I'm getting out of the training routine, I've found that I'm gaining a new perspective on my community in a most literal way. After nearly twenty years of living in the same house & neighborhood but almost always going through it by car, I'm seeing things for the first time that I never knew were there.

There's an amazing variety of flowers & plants out there for one thing, some of it in people's yards and landscaping, some of it apparently growing wild on some of the hillsides and the little interstitial areas between the sound walls and sidewalks on our major streets. They're proving to be a great source for my "Picture Of The Day" posts over on Facebook. ("Friend" me and look them up if you want, I'm just passing 500 pictures going back to be beginning of 2009.)

There's wildlife as well. We've always seen squirrels & some common birds (crows, sparrow, mockingbirds) and some more "exotic" critters such as bats, possums, raccoons, coyotes, and deer. But after never seeing a rabbit anywhere near our house in two decades, I've now seen them on my training walks two or three times a week, both cottontails and larger jackrabbits.

There are folks all over my neighborhood that have art and sculpture in their yards. I never saw any of it before. At the other end of that spectrum, while I thought that we lived in a reasonably graffiti-free area, there's a surprising amount of it written onto the sidewalks where you see it while walking, instead of being written up on walls where you see it while driving.

I've gotten to see some great views of the hills surrounding the San Fernando Valley at all hours of the day, from sunrise to sunset, in different lighting conditions and with different cloud & sky backgrounds. It's really been quite an eye opener.

We tend to zone out when we drive, ignoring what we're driving past if it doesn't interfere with our path and we're not hunting for an address or some store location. In doing so we blind ourselves to much of what's in our surroundings without realizing it. While walking, one of necessity has to be more aware of one's surroundings for safety and navigational purposes, but a wonderful side benefit is that the blinders come off to reveal whole new layers to our everyday world.

So get out there and walk, and keep your eyes open!