For the past couple of years, I’ve listened to audiobooks while running, walking, or even cleaning around the house. This afternoon, however, I wanted to think.
Instead of turning on my audiobook when I went for a walk today, I listened to a playlist I made a while ago of songs that reminded me of the story I’m working on and spent the hour walk intentionally thinking about the characters and plot.
I love the quiet roads I can walk, barely seeing another soul as I criss-cross through the point with the water or the woods always in my sight. Maybe it’s because the winter has been mild so far (knock on wood), but I don’t know why I resisted coming home to it so much. As I look at the ice on the trees and the snow-covered ground and the empty backroads I only see beauty.
When I finished my walk I started a fire and spent the next couple of hours writing all my thoughts down long-hand in my notebook, mapping out scenes and writing snippets until energy was drained.
It felt so good to create something for myself, even if that creation was just a lot of thoughts and half-legible notes.
I was slow to start today, lazying away the morning reading in bed. It would’ve been easy to stay inside after I decided to take a running rest day after my long run yesterday. But I’m so glad I got out to breathe fresh air and spend time on something important to me. We underestimate how crucial time to just think can be. And movement has always helped power my brain.
I hope you had a restful Sunday.
With Love,
Natalie