Yesterday, as I was walking through London on my way to work, I was looking at the colours I could see around me – in buildings, trees, people, the river and the sky. I look at pavements – a lot – when I walk, wanting to avoid tripping on uneven flagstones, or treading in fresh chewing gum, still-smoking cigarettes or last night’s mulitfarious bodily excretions.
But despite (because of?) these various nastinesses, the pavements that I stare at as I negotiate my way through town have a kind of compelling beauty. They are full of colour and texture, always the same but always changing. It got me thinking about how, if we just focus on getting to where we are going, it is easy to forget about where we are, right now, and to let the pleasure inherent in an everyday moment slip away unnoticed.
So today I put my camera in my handbag, and that is where it is staying. I am going to take more opportunities to look, really look closely, at what is around me everyday, and record some of those observations here.
I love the photos of the pavement.
I should do this too. I miss out on loads of good shots. Bet you get some funny looks taking photographs of the pavement though!
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Wonderful – I love these shots!
p.s. “What a dork”? Not at all!!
How right you are! We do miss so much when we are just looking at a point in the future, and not where we are. This is such a cool idea, I hope you don’t mind if I use it over the next week or so. I’ll post them on my blog for you to see also. Costa Rica has some very different walk ways under foot, as I usually must watch where I am going or I would be flat on the ground.