I absolutely love how vivid Barcelona is.
After spending the last couple of years without leaving the US, I guess I had just gotten very used to the relative quiet of our small farm in Florida, a few miles outside of the city.
Barcelona’s streets are busy from dusk to dawn, yet it always feels spacious. Every corner and narrow street is overrun with a mixture of local bakeries, eateries and coffee shops, franchise restaurants, books stores, and souvenir joints.
Every centimeter of the Gothic Quarter, every tapas bar, is crowded with both locals and tourists embracing the rich Catalan culture whether you venture in at ten in the morning or at eleven at night.
Since I got here over a month ago, I’ve gone for a long walk every day, at least once, and for an hour or longer.
Sometimes I go out mid-morning when the sun is high and it bathes the wide avenues with its warmth.
At that time of day, many of my favourite cafeteries are less busy, and I order a hot tea or an oat milk latte and I find a sunny spot by a window, or even better, in a hidden back patio.
I curl up with a book (this is one of the books I am currently reading) or my laptop and sip on my drink for a couple of hours.
If it’s super nice weather and the sun is out (which is almost every day) I end my walk by going to the park and just people-watch like an elder woman, sitting on a bench… tempted to feed the pigeons.
Other times I like to go out after dusk and roam through the main arteries and alleyways of the old city, illuminated by the dim streetlights.
I walk more or less aimlessly, ending up at a new coffee shop hidden in some stinky passageway that I had never noticed before, or even better, I find a new bookshop to explore and talk myself out of buying yet another sci-fi book.
What I noticed in my walks is that most of the time, other than the tourists, that are fascinated by the architecture at every single corner and can’t help but look up, everyone else seems to be looking at their phones, or down at the geometric tiles.
I have also noticed, and I have been aware of it my whole life, that something about my looks (hint: possibly my blackness or my hair, or the combination of both) makes people stare a little more than seems socially acceptable.
I used to take my gaze away immediately and look away or down, yet lately, for the past few weeks, I decided to experiment with something different.
When someone stares for too long, I look them in the eyes and just smile.
Not a sarcastic or fuck you, type smile as I have certainly done in the past, but a genuine hey, I see you, type smile.
A moment of connection. A pause.
I don’t think I need to tell you what happens, but I gotta tell you it’s pretty damn fun.
Granted, there is an asshole every once in a while, but most of the time, I am met with a genuine smile.
I like how it feels, and I hope it makes good ripples.
Brene Brown says; Strong Backs, Soft Fronts, and Wild Hearts, and this experiment of looking people in the eye, feels just like that.
How do you like to create good ripples in your daily life?