Moments

Tonight I was planning to bake cookies for a theater group event that is happening tomorrow night.  I had a bit of a conundrum though.  I needed to go to the store for supplies and my car is in the shop.  I wouldn't be able to drive to the store to get them.

I had two choices.  One would be to walk home and get Kevin's car and drive it to the A&P.  The other would be to walk.

I hate parking Kevin's car.  The lot in our building is small and tight and Kevin's car, while no behemoth, is inconveniently large.

The train station and the store are about equidistant from each other as my home and the train station.  That would mean double the walk home.  It's really cold out tonight too.  I did not enjoy my walk from my office to Grand Central Station tonight.  Did I really want to walk in the cold?  I considered again having to deal with getting Kevin's car in and out of the parking garage and decided to endure the walk.

I walked to store, made my purchases and headed home.  I didn't take Mamaroneck Ave. back home.  I walked back toward the train station through the park.  I suppose that might be risky in the dark when no one was boarding and leaving the train at the time, causing me to be all alone, but nothing happened and it was extremely peaceful.

I took the back way down Philips Park Road toward my building.  I stopped feeling the cold.  I had been walking a while and even worked up a little sweat beneath my coat.  My bag of groceries was beginning to feel a bit heavy.  There are several benches along the river.  I stopped and sat for a while.

It was a clear night.  I looked up through the trees and saw the moon and stars peeking through.  I don't think I have looked up at the night sky since the summer.  I tried to identify constellations while taking in the smells from Rani Mahal across the way. I could hear the river rushing below me.  Instead of thinking about the cold, or about how inconvenienced I was having to go out of my way, I just enjoyed how peaceful I felt.

I was very happy I chose to walk home tonight.  Sure, it would have been a more natural choice on a warm, sunny spring evening, but this cold winter night had a beauty of it's own.  I think I learned a lesson tonight that we shouldn't ignore the chances we have to stop and smell the roses (or the Indian food).