As we continue on through the month of inspiration, I wanted to take a little time to reflect on inspiration and community. This post is going live a little bit later than I usually publish as I’m writing up a post about a walk I went on just this morning.

In previous posts, I’ve talked about how I’ve been trying to become more involved in my local community. One of the ways I’ve been doing this is by utilising my local library more often. I borrow books from there, I go to events, and I’ve started attending workshops and classes.

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This morning, I ventured over to my library to go on a guided walk to one of my local spots – Portland Park. Although it’s a place I frequent regularly (a trail at the bottom of my street leads you straight there) and it features in a lot of my photography, I thought it might be nice to join some other people for a wander.

I’m very glad I did. It’s something I’ve been talking about to people a lot. I’ve become so accustomed to doing things on my own – and am very happy in my own company – that I haven’t really quite processed the idea of building a community around me all the time. A lot of these classes I’ve signed up for are doing things I’d already be happily doing anyway, like walking, appreciating a garden, doing some breathwork, or engaging in some crafts. But there is something very beautiful about doing these things with other people.

Whilst I normally go out for a walk with my headphones in and camera out, I found it really refreshing to meet up with a group of strangers and share in the wonder of spring around me. I discovered new paths and spots to explore from the shared expertise, and learnt new things about places I thought I knew well. I now know where to go to find hazelnuts later in the year, I’ve found a good few spots of wild chives, and had a morel pointed out to me by another person on the walk.

I got to speak to people who were actually very in tune with my own perspectives on life and receive guidance from those with more experience. I got to share my own knowledge of different routes to take and things to look out for.

It would be easy to interpret this month’s theme of inspiration as just being about artistic inspiration. But that’s not what I wanted to do – I wanted the theme to explore every avenue of inspiration available to us and what that might look like.

For me, I’ve been spending a lot more time trying to get involved with my community and I’ve found the people I’ve met in doing so inspirational in a number of ways. Whether it’s inspiration on how to move the work I’m trying to do forward, to follow different paths into familiar woodland, or to try something new – it’s all left me feeling rather inspired.

There will be new photographs to follow later in the week – inspiring moments from nature. For now, I hope you enjoy this unfiltered and unedited one of the pond I went to on my walk.

If you’re in my local area, I’d highly recommend checking out the final Places to Connect Nature Walk in Kirkby-in-Ashfield. It’s free & you can book your spot on Eventbrite!

How have you found inspiration in your local community this past week? I’d love more ideas on connecting with other people and for things to look out for when connecting with others for inspiration.