Direction of sight

May 18th, 2023

I was of two minds this morning — the weather was too nice for driving a car to work, but too iffy for riding my bicycle. In the end, I decided to walk. I have several routes I take when walking there, but they are all grouped by direction — I take this or that route going there, and that or this route going back. No matter which route I take, I always walk it in the particular direction that I once decided on. But today, I decided to walk to work on a route I usually take while going back home. No big deal, right?

Wrong — it was a big deal. For me at least. As I was walking along the route from the opposite side than normally, I made stunning discoveries — an old and picturesquely abandoned wooden house, another menacingly abandoned wooden house, and a house with weird stucco work on the side. And it was stunning because I walked by those houses hundreds of times going ← this direction without seeing them. And today, walking in → this direction there were right there, uncovered for my sight by trees that hide them from view while walking in an opposite direction.

It was a really small thing. I mean — what is a big deal about seeing three new houses while walking to work? It was a big deal for me — I love discovering new things and especially when this discovery happens pretty much in my backyard. And that small discovery today made me happy and made me think — sometimes it is just enough to change a direction of view or look at something from a different angle to discover something hidden that was always there but unnoticed. And since I plan on a lot of walking this summer — I might reverse directions on my well-trodden paths and see what it will bring me.