Feral Fridays

Oh, I forgot to tell you about Feral Fridays. I’ve rearranged my schedule so I have zero commitments on Fridays — except for going where the wind blows me. This past Friday (yesterday), I headed off on bike in a direction I hadn’t gone before and I ended up at not one but two parks in two neighboring counties. And only about five miles each way, so these are easy local places to revisit!

On previous Feral Fridays, I went to an international market to which I’d never ridden my bike, and then I rode two bus routes that were new to me. I’ve also started doing ink prints made from pressing kneaded erasers over urban signs — and am thus learning Braille! Who knows what else is out there that I haven’t discovered yet.

It’s important to have some unstructured, unplanned time in your life, especially if you are a fellow creative. Our neural pathways need new stimulation, plus unfettered time to process in our own unique ways. Personally, after writing two books in three years about solo-traveling across two countries via bikes, buses, trains, and working on organic farms, I really need some aimless wandering to fill up my well again.

If you can’t do Feral Fridays, see what feral hour or two you can do, even if it’s just tossing a bike in the back of your car and exploring somewhere new between meetings or while waiting to pick up kids. Like me, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover — not just about your surroundings, but about yourself.