Paul Monaco .org

 A while ago I posted on a long since abandoned webiste, about how everything has gone “squirt bottle”.  Our soap, condiments and many other products we use daily.  But now I wonder.. what kind of environmental footprint does that bottle hand soap leave as compared to bar-soap and it’s paper wrapper?

I set off to go geocaching last week, but for a change that was the least important part of it.  I ended up at Paper Mill Pond.. which is where the cache was suppose to be, and I’m sure is but I didn’t find it.  Instead I just sat there looking at the pond.  It was just so quite an peaceful.

Even though I was in a bustling industrial area with traffic and factory noises, looking at the still water just absorbed me into a nice quiet place.  So quiet that I thought about nothing.. nothing at all.  And you know what?  There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s okay to give your mind a rest and let your senses sit idle on occasion.

A few days ago (see post) I talked about how I had inadvertently not listened to my MP3 player during a power walk.  A reader pointed out (well, she’s more then just a reader.. but she knows that):

Sometimes we miss out on the best show that is provided to us by the simplest things.

There is just so much truth to that statement. 

A few days ago I decided to tackle a geocache that had previously defeated me.  Actually it was just a slaughter!!!  (story here)

So off I went, only minimally distracted by my gps since I had already been in the area and without earbuds stuck in my head I set out.  Truely amazing!  So many wonderful ideas and visions popped into my head.  I had mentally noted at least 3 fantastic locations to return to for photo sessions, several new waymarks I want to add to my personal hiking collection, 2 side-trails tha tI hadn’t noticed before and to crown the venture I actually found the geocache I was looking for!!!

It’s interesting how I had first started using the MP3 player as a means by which to multitask and enhance my knowledge by listening to educational podcasts while all the time it was actually destracting me from other life lessons.  Perhaps the lesson learned here is to save the MP3’s for more mundane tasks where you’ll be less likely miss out on the wonderful experiences of nature… such as in an office cube.

Heavy rains were predicted for today, so yesterday I made an extra effort to get out and power-walk for a bit.  Normally I get all wired up as soon as I get out of the car.  I fire up my GPS, put my cell-phone on extra loud and plug my head into my Zen MP3 player.

For reasons unknown I just grabbed my hiking stick this time and just got on the trail.  About a quarter of the way through my walk I heard the wrestling of leaves and got sidetracked watching a pair of squirrils play just a few feet in front of me.

It was amazing how they were totally oblivious to my being there and just ran around me as if I was just another tree.  (Was glad they didn’t try to climb me!)

Once I moved on, I realized that I didn’t heave my headphones on and if I did, I would have totally missed this experience.

So now I question if my next walk will be with or with the phones?  Thinking about it, I believe the habit was was picked up out of bordom when I used to simply do laps in the park.  I think what I’ll do now is change trails when I get bored and keep the podcast listening for work.

As for the GPS and cell phone… well  I just had to twitter so the cell was on and loud and the GPS was booted as I wanted to record some coordinates in an effort to organize my walks.