A familiar sight with a new twist

Written February 23, 2023

Day 2 of 40 in a 45-day period: Living in New York, and more specifically in a large portion of Manhattan, means that if you work from home, you might never need to leave your 5 to 10 block radius. It might not be the healthiest of lifestyles, but it would be a possible one.

I live close to Riverside Park and have probably walked hundreds, if not thousands, of miles there over the years. My route often stays the same and every so often I mix it up. When my girls are with me, we have our familiar paths and rocks. When it’s just me, I often see my walking friends - the people I see regularly, have no idea who they are but know I’d be concerned if suddenly I stopped seeing them.

I know to watch out for ice on certain paths when it snows (something that has not happened yet this winter and I celebrate this lack of winter precipitation), to pick up my feet at the different sections where the path has buckled, to watch out for the bicyclists at the ramp to walk by the water and the easiest way to get to the fields when it’s soccer or softball season.

And yet today I walked by this scene that could be meant for a reenactment of Goldilocks and thought to myself, I have never in my life seen this. Is it new? It doesn’t look new. How is it possible that in the 11.5 years we’ve lived in this neighborhood, I’ve never noticed this?

It got me thinking about how easy it can be to miss the things that are right in front of our faces because we either didn’t pay close attention or didn’t want to pay close attention. Or the things I’ve missed out on because I’ve thought to myself, “I know how this one ends.” It also reminded me to consider changing things up once in a while, much like this season of Lent.

For the record, I did eat some Starburst jellybeans last night and so far, there has not been any fallout. I remain unconvinced but am staying open to new possibilities.