Long Walks On Leafy Streets

11/14/2013 Tuckerman St NE, Washington, DC
Last night I walked home from Columbia Heights where I stopped after work. It was in the low forties. We have been having unusually cold weather since Monday, about ten degrees below the average for this time of November. I had my jacket and woolen hat on and yet it was cold when I started walking. My body had cooled down after sitting in a warm room for more than an hour. But I was in a good mood.
I walked up Arkansas Ave as far as I could. I must have covered almost the entire length of Arkansas Ave, probably about a mile. I love walking on these streets named after the states. It started with Pennsylvania Ave in order to appease Philadelphians when they moved the capital to Washington in the late 1700’s. As per L’Enfant’s plan, these streets run diagonally and often they have traffic circles along their way. Because they run diagonally they shorten the walk. So whenever I have to walk a long distance in DC I seek them out as much as I can.
Some of them are very short. Others, like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts are more than five miles long and you cannot miss them if you are going anywhere in DC. I wondered if I had passed by or walked on all the 50 state named streets. I couldn’t remember Kentucky Ave or Washington Ave. Then I looked at Google maps when I got home and couldn’t believe I had forgotten Kentucky Ave because that is near where Nicole used to live, in eastern Capitol Hill. Perhaps because it is such a short street and I rarely had to walk on it. I do remember North Carolina, South Carolina and Maryland Ave from that neighborhood because I walked on those streets many times, by myself as well as with Nicole. We loved walking around the beautifully landscaped streets of Capitol Hill. I also found out that I had never encountered Texas Ave because it is very short and in a part of the city where I had never been. WABA (Washington Area Biking Association) has something called a 50 states tour where they bike all those streets.
Tuesday morning I encountered the first flakes of snow of the season. In fact I counted exactly two flakes. It didn’t really snow at all. I still clearly remember my first flakes of snow. Although I had encountered snow in the mountains of Southern California while hiking with fellow graduate students it wasn’t until I arrived in Washington that I saw snow fall. It was the Wednesday before thanksgiving, 1994. I was on the K6 bus getting home from work. I used to live near Langley Park, in an apartment complex called Nob Hill near the corner of University Blvd and Piney Branch Rd. As the bus approached the big intersection of New Hampshire with University Blvd I saw snowflakes fall. (Incidentally University Blvd is one of the few streets named Boulevard in this area. There are a lot more Boulevards in Southern California). I got out of the bus and realized that I didn’t have a coat. So I went into the K-mart that used to be in Langley Plaza at that intersection. I bought a cheap jacket that served me well for the next ten years or so. I didn’t buy another jacket for a long time. Incidentally now we live just a couple of miles from that intersection. Life has indeed come full circle.
That was my first encounter with really cold weather after having lived in the southern parts of India and California. Later that winter I spent a few weeks in Montreal and it was even colder there. But the cold weather there had a certain consistency to it that helped me to get used to it. I was able to handle the Washington weather easily, after that. If the weather is consistent the body eventually adjusts to it but that is rarely the case in Washington, DC. So you have to build up a certain mental resiliency here.
The reason I was in a good mood last night was because in the past few days I had practiced slowing down the mind, relaxing and sleeping well. I was at meditation with the Washington Mindfulness Community Sunday night when I suddenly realized that I need to relax more. That sounds rather silly so let me explain. There is a part of me that is always a little anxious, worrying about what I haven't done or what needs to be done etc., and then there is a part of me that just wants to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. In my life I go through periods where one of these tendencies dominates. Lately, for the past few years, it has been the former. I have been worried about not getting ahead at work and not getting the things I want to get done for the environment and so on. I have been very busy with life in general and not having enough time to meditate or go hiking by myself or otherwise clear up my mind. I don't know what it was last night -- listening to Thich Nhat Hanh or listening to others in the group talk about meditation and mindfulness, but suddenly it hit me that I have been forgetting the most important rule I set for myself -- to live life each moment as if I were on the beach, with no worries whatsoever. I realized that it is possible to live like that if I let go of my expectations and fears of not meeting the expectations of others. Otherwise I am of no use to anyone. When one is relaxed and living in the moment one tends to be more friendly and generous to others as well as more creative and efficient and hence more productive. There is really no point in holding on to worries or anxieties. We have nothing to lose by letting them go.

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