You're allowed to go outside.

The Juice 🍊🫗 poured into your inbox weekly

Nov 05, 2024

I don’t have much storytelling in me today, but I do have a message.

That’s all.

Tune into your surroundings, your community, your loved ones, your body, and your breath. When anxiety and doomscrolling want to take control…find the birds.

Whatever you do today…take a moment to find the birds and listen to their beautiful melodies of a hopeful future. News cycles won’t give you as nearly as much faith as the birds will.

Take a walk without your phone.

Paying attention. In transit. In stillness.

In line at the market. On my yoga mat. Scrolling online. In a 1:1 conversation.

Phone turned off. I’ve been keeping tucked away in my bag, not to be tempted to pick it up out of habit. The moment I step outside the comfort of my home and enter the outside world, I am paying more attention. Energetic attention. Physical attention.

How much can I pay attention to? What am I seeing? Who am I running into? Where am I going? Am I going there with purpose?

The more I pay attention, the more my world opens. I see the red-painted nails of the cashier at Pingo Doce. I see an acquaintance who is scrambling for brunch reservations and say hello — exchanging pleasantries and briefly catching up. I see the giddy father proudly wearing a newborn baby on his chest. I see dogs roaming the street, looking for their next table scraps from strangers. I see the elderly man protecting his wife from the rain by holding an umbrella above her head, while the rain gently pours onto his tweed jacket. I see tourists roaming the street — aimless, oblivious, and in awe of an unexplored city of beauty. I see trees changing colors, and leaves falling onto the ground after a rainfall or gust of wind. I see the river with a steady rippling current. I can always count on the steadiness of the Tagus River.

Life is so damn beautiful when I pay attention.