Sometimes we don’t see things because we are not looking for them. When I am out on a walk I always walk with no distractions so that I can see what is around me. Today I was rewarded with this windmill. It was beside the trail crossing the bridge over the Sammamish River coming out of Marymoor Park. I wasn’t expecting it, but you never know what you will see on the trails around the Pacific Northwest.

Life is like that. We either pay too much attention to the bad things in life, or we are so absorbed in the ordinary, routine tasks that we miss the pleasant surprises. We need to have an eagerness and anticipation to seek out good things. It takes constant conscious activity.

That is one of the reasons that I walk outside every day, not in a gym, and never with headphones. Even when I am walking in my own neighborhood I am on the lookout for new things to see and hear – and sometimes snell – today it was the scent of fall in the air. I walk because I enjoy it, it energizes me and lifts or maintains my mood for the day.