Reluctantly Falling In Love

Today was so beautiful, I actually went out for a walk - a long walk as it turned out because I got a little lost. Instead of turning left on the street my mom told me to, I turned at the next corner to prolong my walk, thinking I'd get to the street I was aiming for, hoping against hope that our neighborhood was but a grid. Well, it was a little more complicated than that, and for a while I got a little scared because I came upon a very, very, very small forest-y plot of land (Faithful Blog Followers, I was actually humming My Favorite Things yet again - a sure sign of fear). I eventually ended up back home by having my wits about me. (I actually remembered where the sun was supposed to be hitting my face! Lewis and Clark eat your hearts out!)

Since my walk took far longer than I expected, I saw so much more than I had hoped. There were sooooo many squirrels. It made me worry a bit because I thought I'd run into a skunk again, but the worst thing that happened was I sloshed into a puddle - for sure it was a mound of snow a few days ago. I saw these beautiful red-breasted birds, and they were quite huge. One even hopped along and kept pace with me for a while (which isn't really to say much for the bird because I was just walking-walking not exercise walking...) ala that bird that led the Pevensie children deeper into Narnia.

But the most wonderful of all was that everything was green, green, green. So green in fact that if I said green a thousand times, it wouldn't be enough. And to think we're just at the cusp of Spring! (I'm not having an asthma attack, so for sure the pollen isn't there yet.) It was quiet and from deep inside the houses I passed I heard small children and little doggies. I came across quite a few joggers and a nanny with all her small wards in tow. Everyone said hello. Even the cars that passed by waved - because they did the proper thing and slowed down when they were approaching a pedestrian. My gosh. We were like an opening number for some Rogers and Hammerstein musical!

So I must say, methinks I am falling in love with our neighborhood. It's silly because I really don't want to fall in love with Grand Rapids. My fuzzy logic tells me that by loving GR, I'd love Manila less, and I am a true-blue Katipunera, man. Nothing beats walking down Katipunan, half-fearing for your life. But that was home, you know? For crying out loud, I even knew some of the tricycle drivers by face and we'd smile at each other. The guards at the banks and eateries? Smile. Even those takatak or bananacue boys outside of KFC? Smile. Well, maybe a little simangot from time to time, because they can get pretty pushy.

I'll hold on to that logic for a little while more. Because once Spring unleashes it's full beauty, Katipunan just might have a little run for its money.