I've decided to turn my morning walks into sessions to re-program my subconscious mind.
Any day I feel like running in the morning, I'll still do that. But most weekday mornings I usually want to walk.
Lucky for me, we have bush right near our house and so I can walk in there almost without restriction.
In the last couple of days, it has started to get warm again. Warm enough for me to have already seen a black snake! Eeek. Those guys are venomous and so need to be avoided.
But this guy (or girl!) is harmless to us giant humans.
Though it has a very clever adaptation that has made it's tail LOOK like a tiger snake (which is venomous). So even though I have no logical reason to be afraid of this large but harmless blue tongue skink my limbic brain, the oldest part of the human brain doesn't know that.
So, as I'm walking along, listening to a lecture on universal laws of creation I suddenly stop on the spot before my mind (specifically, my pre front cortex) has any clue why.
It's only after I have stopped that I grin broadly and start photographing this beauty. I sneak a tiny bit closer to get a good shot - about half a metre away at my closest point. Not because I think it will hurt me, but because I don't want to scare it too much.
Rather than picking it up and give it a pat, as I would love to do, I ask myself to move on. I pray that it hide a little better before a dog or bike comes along, and continue walking as I listen to reminders about being grateful.
Perfect.