Micro dosing peace

This spot is unfortunately not very near my house, but one of my favorite local places to walk.

I’ve started a new habit recently. When my writing isn’t happening, instead of falling into a dopamine habit, I’m going for a walk. Even if it is just around the block, I stand up from my computer and go. It helps that since early January, I deleted most of the social media apps from my devices and logged off on my computer. I had hopes that another benefit of less distractions meant that my writing would break loose, and I would make quick progress on book three.

Yeah, that hasn’t happened.

However, when I walk through my neighborhood at different times of the day, I connect with the world outside my imagination. Who walks their dogs at what time. How the snow line is changing on the Sawatch. The increased activity of the resident birds, especially as the day warms up. There is a big buck deer that has a wonky leg that often watches my progress from the grass of the neighbor’s yard.

The walk occasionally includes a coffee treat.

Sometimes the transition to the high desert feels jarring if I’ve been writing a descriptive landscape scene from the Western Cape. As is the unfamiliarity of living in town, even after five years. In Alaska, I walked down our steps and into the forest. No houses. No dog walkers. No bikes or hormonal teenagers zipping by in cars. Now the closet open space is a park. Even the river is at least mile from my house.

So, I walk sidewalks instead of trails. The length of two songs on my playlist. I breathe the mountain air into my lungs. Thank my short, but mighty legs for continuing to carry me around.

New kicks always help with walk motivation.

Everything feels so big and overwhelming, so these micro doses of peace are medicinal.

You can expect a higher frequency of these shorter posts from me. It’s become obvious that social media is not going to be the place for authors to communicate with readers anymore, so hopefully you will stick around here for more of my writing.

And a final update. For those of you in the region of Rocky Mountain PBS, a documentary that I was a writer on will air on Thursday evening (January 30) at 7 pm. The Climatarium documentary focuses on three regions in Colorado, and their efforts to address the climate crisis through student career pathways. Here is the link to watch it online.