300 down, 65 to go. Actually 66 because I missed one so I need to make it up at the end. Like a school snow day.Three hundred days ago I decided to do something new every day because I was in a rut--now I feel as if I'm in a rut because I have to do something new every day. As much I feel invigorated with each experience, having to face the daily challenge stresses me out.
Many a morning I wake up without an idea, like today, for instance. I mean, I have plenty of ideas, but I do also have a job and commitments and little time to squeeze a new experience into a busy day.
So, there I was, riding home from rehearsal at 10:30 PM on my new bike (which, as you can tell from the photo, shines in a magical way) and I still hadn't come up with anything new for today. Then I noticed a new way home I hadn't tried on my bike. Now, this in itself doesn't count because I've driven my car up this street and I've already blogged about finding a new way home. But I still thought that taking the turn was in the spirit of the project.
So I turned on the street, got to the top of the hill and took the right fork in the road toward home, only to find myself facing a Dead End sign. Now, I've lived in my house for eighteen years. I've come home this way before. It leads to my house. Not a dead end. So I backtracked to the top of the hill, took the left fork in the road toward home.
Except it didn't lead me home either. I was on some street I didn't recognize, with strange houses I'd never seen. I was utterly and totally lost a quarter mile from home. I felt like Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life.
I continued along, astonished and exhilarated. For, quite accidentally, I'd found something new for today. I'd somehow managed to get lost just a few blocks from my house.
Finally, the street led to the street off which I live. And I realized where I'd been. You see, I'm the third left off a major road. You can get to my house from the second left. But the first left...I'd never taken the first left. Eighteen years and there's an entire street two blocks from my house that I've never gone down. Just the thought of getting up and exploring it tomorrow fills me with wonder.
Which is the point of this blog.
4 comments:
I did this EXACT thing last night while walking the dog! I went down a street I thought I knew, and ended up in a completely different place. 3 streets over from the house I've lived in for 11 years!
I once found a space IN MY HOUSE that I'd never been in before. I was looking for the water shut-off valve, and pointed my flashlight into the space behind the furnace and THERE WAS A ROOM back there, on the smallish size, but big enough to have put a desk and some chairs in. When the furnace was installed (way before we became owners of the house) they must have just had to block off that space. Crawling behind the furnace, I discovered wires crossing the ceiling with little clothespins on them (maybe they used it as a dark room) and some 1950s-era Christmas ornaments. It made me feel like I couldn't catch my breath, finding this space in a house I had lived in for years.
It was your new magical bike that was leading you to interesting and unknown places. I can't wait to hear where your bike takes you next! That shine promises great things, I think.
Awesome experience!
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