Haibun: On Foot

It’s hard to say if I went for a walk because I needed to think or because the pressure was getting to me. Often at my job doing retirement planning, I’d go walk around a block or maybe to the library. The weather of Upstate New York didn’t do much to keep me in my office chair. The black office chairs and evenly measured cubicles under the florescent lights created, not a rhythm, but a monotony.

Walking gave me the space to let my mind wander, to hear or feel what I was trying to ignore. Forcing myself to concentrate on a recommendation for a usually underfunded retirement could be hard to focus on. I’m not sure if it was my sense of hopelessness or if I was becoming callous that made the job so lifeless and hard. But after the walk I could sometimes come up with a honest recommendation. 

Helping people navigate through to retirement is a noble career, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it work. I needed to escape.

gone to the high pines

the escape, divine, so cool

as spring realigns