I started this blog years ago to try and be mindful about the good things in life. I have obviously gotten very bad at posting about anything other than music. Music is still something that makes me extremely happy, so I don’t feel bad about those posts. I would just like to try and get into a better habit of posting about other things. Part of the reason why I am better about writing about music is that I have some set music related things I post about like New Music Fridays and reviews of all the concerts I go to. I don’t have that routine for anything else.

After about 6 months of not really being able to exercise due to various issues, I was finally able to start getting back into my daily walks this summer. As I’ve been out walking I’ve been trying to be more mindful about what’s around me and have thought of multiple things that would make great posts, but as is often the case I never take the time to sit down and actually write about them. I even have pictures for three blog posts that I’ve never written.

Then last week one of my friends wrote about how her love for Baltimore has grown as she walks around, pays attention, and takes photos of it. It sort of inspired me to finally do something with all these posts I write in my head but never put down on “paper”. So I’m going to try and start a fairly regular series in which I write about the things both big and small that I love about Baltimore.

There’s no denying that Baltimore is a hard city with a lot of problems, but it also has a lot of really wonderful things. At some point in the last year my husband and I watched an episode of Samantha Brown’s Places to Love featuring Baltimore. After watching it I was like wow that does remind me that Baltimore is a great place. My husband replied something to the effect of that’s the thing about Baltimore. All the bad stuff is true, but all the good stuff is too.

It’s so very easy, especially these days, to let the bad outweigh the good. Baltimore has always had it’s issues, but the past three to four years have been especially brutal and the tide does not seem to be turning. It’s for sure the worst it’s been in the 19 years I’ve lived here. It’s easy to look at everything that’s wrong and feel hopeless and forget about all the things that make this city great. Hopefully these forthcoming posts will be a reminder to myself and to others that there are great things about Baltimore and that it’s worth fighting for.