Get thee to Rock Creek Park

Yesterday was a terrible-horrible-no good-very-bad-day (if you don't get the reference, read this book), and I woke up today feeling like I still had some leftover blech to shake off. Without even really thinking about it, I found myself turning my dog's standard morning walk into a hike through Rock Creek Park - and boy, did it do the trick.

I stood on a bridge over the creek and stared at the reflections of the big, majestic, angular trees in the water below, and I was transported away from whatever nonsense had been bugging me - the spell was broken and I was myself again.

I'm taking a class on how to start your own business, through the National Women's Business Center, and the other night our teacher counseled, "Get rid of stress - it keeps you from using energy in constructive ways. And as an entrepreneur, you'll need all the energy you can get."

I think the same goes for all of us - we all need all the energy we can get if we are going to move mindfully through life, and be awake enough to savor everything around us -- and, ideally, to create. When we let ourselves sink into stress, we are really giving up on the creative life - letting ourselves become passive victims rather than active creators of rich, rewarding lives.

So if you're feeling like Alexander (again - if you don't get the reference, read this book!), like you just can't shake off what you know is ultimately a whole lotta nonsense, my advice is to get thee to Rock Creek Park. Walk, bike, whatever your fancy, but pay attention to your surroundings... notice the trees...breathe it all in...shake off the nonsense...and then get back to stuff that matters.