Task 7 of Week 3 is to “take some time out to follow your inner compass in an activity that allows you to do so” etcetera.
Your inner compass is a metaphor, of course, for finding your calm grounded center and reading yourself accurately. But I decided to take it real literally and try to navigate my way around my neighborhood.
You see, a week or so ago I tried to “walk around the block” after dark and became hopelessly lost for 1 1/2 hours. (Disclaimer: I haven’t lived here very long and may have had a drink or two.)
Little did I know that I live in the Bermuda Triangle. Or the Mill Valley Triangle, as it were. Apparently, not only do streets in my neighborhood twist and turn and climb and end suddenly and refuse to connect to each other in any sort of a logical way, but when you try to turn around and retrace your steps, they actually disappear and turn into other streets.
It’s a crazy labyrinth not unlike something out of a Guillermo del Toro movie, and quite an unsettling experience for someone who has always, always had an incredible sense of direction whether behind the wheel or on foot. Humbling at best, and really just maddening.
So today, I decided to attempt to retrace my steps with the additional help of daylight, a Google map, and utter sobriety.
Guess what?
Totally lost.
First of all, the map was incorrect at just about every turn. What the eff, Google?
Second of all, whatever mad scientist was hired to do the engineering of this neighborhood had a raw evil streak a mile wide. It makes zero sense.
An hour of power walking later, I ended up retracing my steps, which for those of you that have had the unfortunate experience of hiking with me, is something I really try never to do.
Inner compass my ass, but I did take some really lovely photos of this fence in my neighborhood:
Which is funny, because the other theme of Week 3 is synchronicity, and as it happens, one of my clients had just been talking to me about her passion for documenting fence painting (she’s a well-known garden designer). So, I was happy to be able to take these shots and send them to her.
Mission accomplished.
