So much of the way we experience life comes down to our perspective, and how we choose to feel about the world around us. I truly do believe it’s a choice, because our joy is rarely defined by our experiences, but rather by our reaction to them. Are you an optimist, one who sees the silver lining in every dark cloud, or the pessimist who assumes the storm will always find them? Most of us are somewhere in the middle, with good days and bad, but like all other spectrums of human reality, we find ourselves at one end or the other. Sometimes, we get stuck.
I try to walk two miles nearly every day. I don’t always achieve this, and I don’t walk in the rain or snow, but walking is good for my heart and head, and my day is never better for not having walked. There’s no day a short, brisk walk can’t improve, and my mind is always sharper and more open for having exercised. It’s an intellectual pursuit that is emotionally gratifying and will likely improve the quality and longevity of my life. It also seems to germinate ideas, all on its own, and I traffic in ideas for a living, so it seems like a valuable investment. None of this means there are days you simply do not wish to participate in.
We live in the low country, just off the marsh, and so Greenheads (biting flies) can be a nuisance in the summer months. I don’t let them stop me and if you were to look out your window near the end of our dead-end street close to the marsh, you’d likely see me walking down the road most days, waving my arms about my head wildly but without excitement. Greenheads aren’t repelled by most commercial bug spray, and I don’t like using it anyway. It’s mostly a sticky factor, which I don’t enjoy, rather than some health or ecological position. I’d rather do almost anything else, and waving my arms about seems to work.
I was walking today and while temperatures are still in the mid 80s, it was fairly pleasant. This being the middle of August, it should have been well past the Greenhead season, but apparently, no one told the flies that live here in Goshen. They seemed particularly aggressive and in search of a meal, and I appeared to be the only option.
The upside of this, I realized only just today, is that when the flies are out and about, I walk faster—considerably faster—as if I can outrun them, which I can’t. I have found that greenheads generally have either a short attention span, a lack of stamina, or otherwise refuse to travel too far for a meal. If you keep moving, and keep swatting to keep them from landing on you, they will fuck off and find something, or someone, else to gnaw on. I am rarely bit, and I walk most days, so it’s arguably been an effective strategy.
Which led me to a new thought. The Greenheads, in their own unique way, are out there encouraging me to pick up the pace, which I am obliged to do. I could complain about the flies, which aren’t going anywhere, or I could choose to think about them differently. I do not like them, but I’m sure there are many creatures who do, and who am I do deny some other living thing a good meal, or at least, a light snack? The flies don’t keep me from walking, or even from enjoying my walking experience. Most of the year, they are hidden away, doing whatever it is that insects do in the cold weather months, so I can deal with the relatively minor inconvenience of their appearance in the warmer months.
The nicer the weather, the more likely I am to stroll rather than stride, which has it’s own advantages. I become more observant of the natural world, noticing the various flora and fauna of my funky little patch of earth on the edge of the world, simply because I am not bothered by the weather. In the winter, it’s the wind and the cold that moves me, as I am anxious to get back inside when the weather is foul.
Today, the Mockingbirds were all chattering about something I couldn’t quite decipher, as it seemed to be neither song nor scold, but I could not slow down to investigate, lest the flies catch up with me. The Mockingbirds weren’t likely upset with me, I don’t think, though they most definitely keep an eye on my comings and goings, but something had their attention.
Maybe they were just mocking me.
