Open Tabs

Stories about shared places and ordinary habits

Walking the same path for a year

Twelve visits to one stone path under the trees, and a slow lesson in noticing things that only change when you are not looking.

By Mara Quint1 min read

A stone-paved path covered in yellow leaves, between a stone wall and trees, with a small stone building beyond.
Photograph: nottaroisa (CC0-1.0)

I made a rule in January: once a month, the same path, the same direction, no headphones. The path is a short run of stone paving between an old wall and a row of trees, past a small stone building with a red roof, and in January it is mostly puddles.

By April I had started to recognise individual trees. By June I noticed that moss was filling the joints between the paving stones, and that I had been walking a slightly different line each month without deciding to.

What repetition shows

A single walk shows you a place. Twelve show you time passing in it. The planters along the edge were bare in March and overflowing by August. In November the whole path disappeared under yellow leaves for about ten days, and then, one visit later, it was stone again.

You cannot see a path change. You can only see that it has.