So, I had originally intended to post this the day I did the walk on 27th January... but life...and it was a Thursday that I did the walk, not a Wednesday, so I thought I would wait for the following week, but... life... and then covid... and so now...

Finally, it is another Wednesday, a month later, and I need to write lol and so I thought it was time to dig out the pics from my spur-of-the-moment walk along the Thames with my Jack after school. We had an hour and a bit to kill whilst my eldest, Oliver, was playing rugby, and we both love exploring the riverside. He was up for it immediately; no arm twisting required 😎

We are actually very fortunate because my sons' Primary School backs onto the Thames River. There is a short walk across a piece of open field and then there it is! Of course, it makes for a parent's nightmare when the kids are little and all out in the park playing in the afternoon... and so you dare not take your eyes off of them, but the older ones... well they just know not to go near the river without adult supervision ... or else lols.

I have copied it below to give you some insight into how important that walk was for me in contributing to restore my sense of wellbeing and joy:

I read this the other day but didn't even have the energy to comment at the time. I felt done. Completely drained. The joy I always talk about that drives me; gone. So, this post resonated with me more than most might appreciate. When I am driven back deep inside myself to seek refuge and rebirth, for whatever reason, my heart and head go to poetry. I read it...consume it. I write it. I tend to go quiet whilst I figure things out; how to move forward. I withdraw. I lack the energy to engage; even picking up the phone to speak to my family is a struggle then...so I don't. I just ride it out. And when I do engage under these circumstances, I oftentimes feel like I am a fly on the wall watching myself engage. In these times, I find poetry a cathartic response to my own sense of being in limbo. I had just come off a high of writing my didactic tale about the little leprechaun, Chasing Rainbows, a story I loved writing and which doubled up to cover two challenges from last week, but mostly for my Jack and me. I had also come off an intensive week of engagement for an on-chain challenge, and then suddenly I felt like one does when that wave in the sea lifts you up unexpectedly and dumps you down so hard into its bubbling, swirling torrent of water that you find yourself swept off your feet, tumbling, twisting, trying to regain solid ground, finding it momentarily, but feeling the grains slipping beneath your soles...and then you surrender ...and choose to ride it out, knowing that it has an end because there is no other way. Learning to manage the ride is so important. Unfortunately, many will learn the hard way. The dump was a result of a mix of things occurring simultaneously to impact my sense of joy and peace, both on and off-chain. With energy sapped, the melancholy set in and I have been surfing some of my favourite go-to music on youtube this week. Ironically I also always seem to find joy in Discord (the platform😜). I guess because it's the connection: real people having real conversations. A few people this week have met me in the right place this week in this space 😉 and those little conversations were each really helpful in helping to shift the mood a bit, although they may not have even realised I was in this headspace at the time. I wasn't really aware of it, but looking back now, I sought out the right people on that day and I gained insights that made me smile. A relatively new Hiver also reached out to me on Hive re the poem that I wrote this week called The Wave. He gave me such simple good advice and an ear, and it really brought some joy back yesterday. I took a lovely walk along the Thames river with my Jack and we took delight in cheering on the Eton boys doing their rowing drills up and down the river. I have resolved to go back to basics. I do what I do for joy. No stress or time constraints. When my energies are being sapped and the joy dissipates, the reason for being in a place disappears with it. So I am going to focus on the things that bring me joy, and 'write in' the breaks, and thereby avoid the subliminal stress points that can arise when you overcommit your energy. I !LUV your message. This approach feels like the right one for me. It will enable me to spend my time doing what I love and bring me back to joy on the blockchain. I am going to be more mindful about how and where I expend my energy. I think these are the important messages in your post. And I will learn to ride that wave magnificently over time, my friend, both on and off the chain, because I am here to stay💗

I am in a really good space now on Hive. I feel motivated and energised again. I have rediscovered the joy... and that walk did me the world of good. Of course we couldn't get very far in just an hour and we had to stop and explore and climb trees and cheer on Eton Rowers and run up bridges and just generally hang out too... because it's what we do❣️

The Thames Path can be walked all the way from it's source in Gloucestershire to South East London, some 184 miles. We have cycled a lot around the Windsor/Eton part of the river. It is very pretty there and Windsor itself is an awesome little town, the Queen happens to think so too as it is the place she calls home. Eton has a high street and then pretty much everything else is based around Eton College.

Anyway, Jack and I walked across the field and decided to walk upstream.

Here are a few pics from our walk

We were both kinda taken with his ornamental private gate onto the rivers edge

That walk truly was the icing on the cake to restoring my soul that week. Jack and I had so much fun. We laughed, we raced each other, we cheered on rowers, we chilled. If you are ever feeling low, do yourself a favour and head out into nature... and take yourself for a walk💗🙏💗

Dreemport banner used with permission from @dreemport and @dreemsteem and designed by @jimramones