Cities

I've noticed that lots and lots of people look down when they walk

I used to do that too
Walking alone sometimes makes me nervous, so i look down, or bite my lip, or twist my fingers in my hair of my skirt or round each other for lack of anything to hold on to
sometimes i take out my phone and just tap my fingers on the screen although i don't do anything
or i look through pictures and relive my past

But how sad it is to walk through this beautiful world and not see it

maybe it's to do with city living, because apparently new yorkers also look down
(how ironic, a city of sky scrapers and downcast gazes)

anyway, i have resolved to not look down when i walk anymore, unless i am walking in a field of beautiful flowers or balancing on something (like that concrete pavement side on the way to the school toilet)

I tried it on the way home today.
I looked at houses and people going into the MRT and the roof above the escalator and the construction workers and the cranes and the trees and the sky and the people in cars and the children in the swimming pool

oh i did actually look down a few times (Habits are hard to break), and once when i looked down i stopped myself from crunching a dead lizard that had decided to die in the middle of the pavement

But aside from that

looking up is a magnificent thing
you walk taller
you feel freer
apparently when you change the way you walk you feel happier
you do feel happier