The Art of the Flower Walk

Tonight, I was so blissed out from outdoor yoga at the river, and then so engrossed in my first attempt at making Kimchi Soondubu Jjigae (a Korean soft tofu stew), that I did not realize until just after the sun went down that I had missed my "flower walk" - a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood that I have grown accustomed to taking every evening just before sunset. 

Since I missed actually taking my walk tonight, I decided to write about it.

I LOVE my nightly flower walk.  

This ritual is relatively new in my life, though.  At the beginning of the year, I moved to a new spot, which happens to be in town, or "on the grid," as we say here.

That was winter.  Then just as spring arrived and things began thawing out and greening up, the pandemic went into overdrive and we began shelter-in-place.  As that continued, and spring turned to summer, life began taking new shape, and I began putting rituals and routines in place that would hold this new life.  

One thing I began doing was a gratitude practice.  Another was to make yoga, meditation, and going for a walk a mandatory, "do-not-pass-go," part of every single day.  

Practicing gratitude, along with slowing life down in general, helped me to take stock of the little every day things I love about life.  They are things like hearing birds singing outside my window, the magic that is present in those few moments between sunset and dark, at dusk, seeing interior lights of quaint houses on just after evening settles in, cooking and enjoying a good meal, (especially if it is some distant part of the world), connecting with nature, leaving the door and window open to let in the cool evening air while the sprinklers are running, watching white window linens billow in the evening summer breeze, and going for flower walks.

Flower walks began as just that - walks around the neighborhood appreciating all of the beautiful gardens full of flowers.  At about the same time, I began practicing grounding in meditation every day.  

Soon I was incorporating my grounding practice in to my flower walk every evening.

The better I became at grounding while moving, the more I began to feel an overwhelming joy on my evening walks.  It felt like the sun was shining through me.  I could not help but smile.  So my visualization began reflecting that.  I began seeing myself as spreading this energy of grounding and connection, gratitude, joy, and light as I walked.  I imagined it blanketing out over the area around me as I walked around the neighborhood, almost as if everything was in black and white and when I walked by it suddenly was color.  Or as if the flowers opened as I went by.  

This at first might sound like some strange meditation power trip, but that was not what it was about - at least not in that way.  It was about affecting my day instead of my day affecting me.  Rather than just a power trip, it was about being conscious about my ability to impact my surroundings, and then choosing what type of impact I wanted to have on them.  I was empowering myself to release whatever the day had brought and reset my energy to the vibration I chose, while at the same time choosing to hold and share that vibration, rather than just absorb whatever I encountered, or worse, unconsciously spread a lower vibe I might have picked up during my day.  

As I practiced this, my flower walk quickly became my very favorite part of each day.  Today is the first day in a while I have missed this sunset ritual I have grown to very much love, as it brings me a great deal of peace, joy, and gratitude.  But because of that, today I was able to share my flower walk with you.

Love and Gratitude,

​Kasey