Mindful Wandering Posts — Archive | how to save the world

mindful wandering
photo by Maren Yumi on flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Back in December 2021, I decided to try something different. I took a long walk near where I lived, and then wrote about what I encountered and what I was thinking about during the walk. It was written in the first person singular and in the present tense. Readers kind of liked it as a change of pace, and I liked writing it — it’s a bit more personal than my usual essays and writings.

So I’ve been doing it, and posting it as the final article on the blog each month since then. Readers seem to still like it, and so do I. The full archive of these “Mindful Wandering” posts is below.

I take a bit of literary licence in writing these, and so they are categorized as “Creative Works”. I sometimes amplify or tweak what ‘really’ happened for dramatic effect. Often the thought processes and ideas described in the posts only come to me afterwards, when I’m writing the post. In a few cases, I get whimsical and put in some flights of fancy, things that didn’t ‘really’ happen, though I imagine, and wish, that they could or would have. I think these are pretty obvious, and don’t constitute literary malpractice. In a few cases I conflate events that actually occurred on two or more walks, when they make the post more interesting or if they seem to go together.

But in every case the events described are based on things that I was actually experiencing or thinking about, and in every case there’s no reason to believe they couldn’t have happened as described, though they’re dolled up a bit to make my actual and intellectual life a little more exciting than it actually is.

I hope you find them enjoyable.

~ Dave

#25 — Dec 2023: In a Foreign Land

#24 — Nov 2023: Transported

#23 — Oct 2023: Tribes

#22 — Sep 2023: More Scenes From a Café: The Body Language Lesson

#21 — Aug 2023: What’s Going On: Thoughts on a Train

#20 — Jul 2023: Scenes From a Café

#19 — Jun 2023: You Can’t Feel Sad for Everyone

#18 — May 2023: Uncultured

#17 — Apr 2023: The Post-Game Show

#16 — Mar 2023: Long Way Home