Taking a Walk

Sometimes it's good to take a walk with a 17-month-old. It doesn't even have to be a long walk. I've been spending a lot of time with my nephews the past few days, and on Saturday we went swimming at a city pool. There's a sidewalk that leads from the pool to a play area—just a regular sidewalk, nothing interesting about it. But the first time I walked that sidewalk with Sean, he stopped to examine an interesting patch of grass, a small puddle of water, and a stray rock. It made think about what I'm missing by always taking the shortest way home or the straightest route from point A to point B. When do we lose the instinct to meander our way through the world, examining all the little details that pop up in front of us? I'll almost always stop to admire a sunset, and I try to never be in so much of a hurry to get to the future that I miss out on what's happening in the present, but I wonder what I'd learn if I slowed down a little more often just to soak it all in.