Greeting on Autopilot
I didn’t walk today until about 2:00pm after a morning of driving home and writing. On a typical day, this would be walk #2 or maybe #3 as walking is my thing - for clarity and peace.
Tim and I spent Friday and Saturday at Milwaukee’s Irish Fest. As I strolled along Lake Shore Drive today, I thought about the role of our ancestors in shaping our lives - the famines, the resiliency, and the longing for what could be.
The peaking whitecaps and rolling undertow lulled me into imagining life in County Kerry with miles of solitude.
Not many people were out on this misty, rainy-off-and-on day in Northwest Indiana. Happy to see another human soul, I vibrantly greeted a fellow walker, “Good morning!”
He smiled and waved shyly. Quickly, I corrected myself, “I mean afternoon.”
Mindfulness has nothing to do with words.
Another passerby approached and again I greeted, “Good morning!”
He, too, smiled.
I’m scaring myself, I thought.
I vow not to get frustrated with people who use the wrong words. People say all kinds of things they don’t mean.
As a golf cart with four passengers cruised by, I smiled broadly and waved. I did not trust myself.
Another “good morning” would have sent me to a neurologist.