One of my favorite things to do is to go walking. Walking through the woods, walking through the city, walking with a friend, walking with Isabel. Walking, walking, walking. Walking is completely relaxing for me. And walking is slow enough that you can stop to check something out, or get a more detailed view of a place than you could driving or riding in a car. Granted, you can’t go as far as fast, but walking helps me get to know a place more intimately. Walking and talking is also one of my favorite things, but that’s for another post. Here I want to talk about the discoveries made while walking in Philly.

First, Nikkie, Isabel and I hiked a trail near her house and found bouldering! Ahhh!

How awesome to have a bit of climbing so close to home.

We also discovered Halloween flamingos, which are awesome:

And then real flamingos at the zoo:

And we discovered that the Wissahickon Trail is just beautiful in general:

Our first few days in Philadelphia were rainy, but the sun finally came out on Sunday and gave us a beautiful sunset:

Nikkie and I went to this fantastic yoga class where the theme was all about balance. Noticing the differences in how one side of the body feels versus the other side, but also thinking about the balances and imbalances in our lives. I definitely need to pay more attention to life balance. I know that I don’t take enough time to rest, or, when I do, I feel incredibly guilty and that stresses me out, which then nullifies the benefit of that time. I’m all out of whack.

During savasana (final relaxation), our teacher reminded us that resting is just as important as working. And that sometimes, resting can be harder than working! I think she was reading my mind. But it’s true. There’s a counterbalance, a sort of yin and yang, to it. You can’t have work without rest, and vice versa. I’ve gotten into a steady “must be working!” mode, shutting off any idea of rest. This class made me more aware of this imbalance and has brought me closer to examining it. So I think now I will try bring the resting mode into balance more. This is my challenge.