I love the word saunter. It instantly makes me think of just what it is, a leisurely walk to anywhere with no worrying about time!

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This goes towards Thursday 13 where we make a list of 13 things, anything we wish

A Saunter Through 13 Things: On Time, Cats, and History

Time Flies

It only seemed like yesterday that we dropped off our son at college for his freshman year, and bid a bittersweet goodbye to him as we came home, since we were proud of him starting off college but also wanting to hold on to him just a little while longer at home.

And this Sunday, we were celebrating graduation as he walked with many others in their commencement ceremony. In a reversal, it was another bittersweet goodbye to college life. (though thankfully, this is an advance goodbye for he will be returning there in fall to finish a couple more courses)

But end of the college year for my now-rising-sophomore daughter and my son on the 13th meant a super-hectic weekend of packing up and cleaning dorm room and apartment respectively. Now, Friday the 13th of 2025 seems both so long ago and just now too. Time does have a strange way of flying.

Step Lightly, Saunter Well

Today is World Sauntering Day, and after the hustle and bustle of last week, I need to saunter today – so I am making a point of slowing down — not rushing from chore to chore. I started with a leisurely walk post-dinner last night, and it was bliss in the way cool summer nights can make it!

• 52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time by Annabel Abbs-Streets (Author) 
• John Muir Saunters Through Our National Parks by John Muir (Author), Gerald Luttmann (Foreword) 

Sauntering Reminds Me Of

watching toddlers explore a garden. For them, everything is new and magical. Time? Well, it stretches like taffy in that garden. I want to channel that feeling, that freedom today. And talking of freedom brings me to

Juneteenth: Freedom Day

which is a day of solemn remembrance and celebration. On June 19, 1865, news of emancipation reached enslaved people in Texas. It’s a reminder of resilience, justice delayed, and the ongoing journey toward equity. Here are a couple of books you can read for the day:

• Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan with art by Keturah A. Bobo (6 – 8 years, and up)
• The History of Juneteenth by Arlisha Norwood (6 – 10 years, and up)

A Few More to Ring in Freedom Everyday for Everyone

For more reads, check out this post and this one (there are other posts as well, but for now, these two)

And a few others that come to mind: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, and The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis. Each of these also has a movie to pair with the book (and the movies are amazing as well).

Circling back to time, next up is

A Watch Story

Today being National Watch Day brings to mind my very first HMT watch that my dad got for me when I started eighth grade. I recall the happiness at receiving it and the pride with which I wore it for those first few months! And then a Mickey Mouse watch I got for fun as an adult as well as a fancy watch my DH years ago (though I don’t wear watches much now, or not at all). In the Mickey Mouse watch, his arms ticked time, and somehow, it made time pass more magically! Though, as I have said earlier in this post in different words, ….

Time Isn’t Always Linear

Some days fly. Some drag. But I’ve learned it’s less about what the clock (or the watch) says and more about how we spend our moments. And we can definitely learn to savor time by relaxing from that ever so opinionated cat…

Garfield….

Lazy, opinionated, carb-loving? On Mondays and some Wednesdays, I am Garfield. June 19 is his birthday (1978)! Lasagna, anyone? And reading the comics, including the Garfield strip, was one of my favorite parts of lazy weekends!

Talking about cats brings me to the next item on my list, which is

Cats and Boxes – A Love Story

It’s International Box Day! Which somehow also celebrates cats? I kind of understand for I have seen enough photos of cats squeezing themselves into cardboard boxes! And a quirky holiday that is sure to elicit smiles. My DD is sure to fully support this crossover holiday.

But boxes are not just a source of joy for cats, they are also endless sources of creativity and joy for little ones everywhere. They are the foundation for many home-made costumes (have you seen those transformer-type ones), forts and castles, family/group portraits (those fun ones where people peep out of, or are inside cardboard boxes in a collage!?), this-that-and-everything-play, plus so much more.

A Box of Books About Boxes!

So What’s in My Metaphorical Box? (And in Yours?)

Today, I’m unpacking a box labeled Dream Projects. Starting to work on poems that were just fragments of ideas sauntering in my mind for months now. Those drawings and doodles as well. Unpacking boxes – even metaphorical ones – does seem to inspire fresh starts.

And this also brought me to another project, which involves unpacking physical boxes of stuff that needs to be organized and put away (not a dream project, but one that needs to be done!)

Happy Birthday to Salman Rushdie

I love Haroun and Luka, characters he wrote for his son in the books below, and did read a few of his essays and have been meaning to get to many others for too long now, especially those I have included below

• Haroun and the Sea of Stories
• Luka and the Fire of Life
• Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights: A Novel 
• Shalimar the Clown
• The Enchantress of Florence
• Midnight’s Children
• Quichotte

Today’s Pledge: Saunter, Learn, Celebrate

A promise to stroll more, to saunter, scroll less. To stay curious, honor freedom. To read and create, and of course to be a little like Garfield. And maybe sit in a box — just for fun.