Walkabout

When was the last time you went walkabout?

I am probably not using the word correctly so I will endeavor to explain a bit.

To just set off and wander. To have no destination in mind, just walking to and fro on the earth to find what you may find.

See, our world is a pretty interesting place. You people do all of these really weird things, roads and buildings and houses and stuff.

Just Stuff.

 It’s everywhere actually, this stuff.

Sometimes it makes sense to me. This building is for living, this building is for playing, this building is for eating.  I try to pay attention. I try to open my eyes and see the world around me.

Most times though, the stuff just blurs in the corner of my eye. I rush by so fast on my way to somewhere to do something that seems immensely important at that moment. Everything just becomes grey and featureless.

I realized one day whilst driving down the road that I could actually see much further in the distance then I really had any use for.  I mean, everything that concerned me was happening within 75 feet and closer. And when I looked up from the road I could see a vast distance. I could see mountains, some I have been on but most not. I could see the far horizon and I wondered what was beyond it. I could see the everlasting sky above me, the faint outline of the moon and the blaze of the sun.

So I parked. And walked. I saw a lot of things. I saw a lot of people.
A man asked me for money and I gave him some.
A woman asked me directions and I smiled and gave what help I could.
I took pictures of things and people that caught my eye.
And I wondered.

I wondered about the lives of others.
What they do and why they do it?
Who they are and who they want to be?
I saw their buildings and their homes.
I walked and walked and saw wonderful things.


I opened my eyes and saw the dirt and the trees, pushing up from sterile ground in impossible places.

I saw art, and I saw garbage, and to my untrained eye it was hard for me to tell the difference.

I saw the world. A very, very small part of the world.

But for a moment, it seemed very big indeed.