Sometimes it helps to take a step back
With the recent news coming out of Florida, the ongoing partisan issues in Washington D.C. and from our own state capital, plus other stories I can understand why people can get into dark moods. The thing is we all need to take a step back and take a breather from everything. Yes, I know this is nothing new and people have been saying it for years, but in today’s world it seems even more important. Especially with how a person could nearly drown in ongoing news streams or being connected to social media without a break.
One way I take a short break is by walking. Sometimes I’m thinking about what I have going on, other times it helps to clear my head. To me it’s a little easier, and thriftier, than getting into a car and burning the gasoline to drive a short distance. It’s also a way to get some exercise. Another benefit, I don’t have to scrape ice off the windows, no worrying about strapping on a seat belt and the only times I have to worry about traffic is when I’m crossing the street. On especially frigid days where the temperature is in the single digits, both above and below zero, I’ve had more than one person ask with surprise if I walked to a place. To be honest it’s usually to places one to two blocks away, I don’t mind and it’s a reminder that the weather comes with the area we live in. Confession time, I don’t walk to the library as much as I used to, yes it’s because of the cold, but usually I have an errand to run or a meeting to get to after I’m done at the library.
I will also admit I relax a bit by doing some web surfing with my laptop. I’ll find some music to listen to on youtube, watch a show, read a story or sometimes search for a slow-cooker recipe. One time I found a recipe for shrimp scampi that didn’t take a lot of time to prepare and cook.
One thing I probably should do is a little more reading of books. I have a wide selection from mysteries to history pieces to biographies to science to ghost stories to science-fiction that I could be busy for quite some time. I enjoy reading, mainly because it allows the creation of a character or scene in the “theater of the mind” as some have called it.
The only other medium I know of that is close to this, is radio. I grew up hearing the occasional rebroadcasting of a radio program, such as “The Shadow” or “The War of the Worlds.” Over the years I’ve found several radio programs that I like to listen to while I’m on a long car drive. There was one I found that was a surprise, an extended version of the first Star Wars movie redone as a radio drama. Apparently it was so popular they made radio dramas of the next two movies. One radio story that I stumbled on one time when driving north to visit family for Christmas was “The Shepherd.” It’s a story that has quite the twist at the end. Also, it seems the internet has given new life to the field as there are podcasts out there featuring updated or new stories. It might take a little searching, but they are out there.
There’s a few ways in which a person can take a step back and breathe and just relax, but you can also find your own.
