Ghosts in The Attic

I’m not sure when it happened; if it was gradual or sudden, but boundless energy or the urge to stay out late has all but failed me. Besides crippling insomnia, the reason I am currently writing this at 5 am, I perpetually feel as if I were shot from a cannon.

If you’ve read my other posts you will have seen my recent adventures in Europe blending in with college kids just a few years older than my own child. I knew I wasn’t a spring chicken anymore, but palling around with teenagers makes it woefully apparent that I am in fact, old.

But one thing I did learn from that experience is the American way of living truly contributes to exhaustion. A combination of fresh food, places to be, and walkable cities made me feel more revitalized than I have in easily 15 years. I got so much shit done, early even. I was shocked at how much stuff one could successfully pack in a day, when here it feels like I can’t fully make it through two loads of laundry, cleaning the kitchen and a study sesh.

My body may have been beat to hell under the pressure of walking an average of 7 miles a day, but my mind and spirit were ready to go.

I think the best possible thing any of us can do to find energy within ourselves is to get out there and move. Find a place you want to walk, find a park, a preserve, historic site, something, anything of interest that is not these cookie cutter neighborhoods that are sterile and soul sucking. Our car centric way of living is truly draining the life right out from us and we can’t fix it until we advocate for better. If not for us at least for our kids.