Scenes from a Morning Walk: An Introduction
A love letter to walking, friendship, and our Fargo neighborhood
Welcome! My name is Kirsten Jensen and I am so glad you’re here.
I am a person who takes a morning walk most days. I have been working on building and maintaining this identity for myself for just about 10 years. (I really understood that was what I was doing when I read James Clear’s book Atomic Habits and learned about the power of identity-based habits.)
In fact, my neighbor, Tricia, and I have been walking a route in our neighborhood together 3-5 days a week since June 2015.
It started when Tricia noticed my random attempts at a morning walking routine and bravely asked if I’d like to walk with her. I knew from many things that I had read that having an accountability partner would help me be consistent. So, I said yes enthusiastically. It only took four days for me to share on Facebook that day 4 was the day I would have stayed in bed.
During our early years of walking, we would take photos when we saw something particularly noteworthy – a stunning sunrise, fresh steps in new snow, a rainbow, sidewalk chalk that made us smile.
Then, on June 10, 2019, I posted this photo that I captioned “Scenes from a Morning Walk.” The response to the photo blew me away. More than a hundred likes and a dozen comments about this fun addition to our neighborhood. The next day we reflected that we could probably find something like that every day. And, “Scenes from a Morning Walk in #ILoveFargo” began.
Just about anywhere I go, people who are connected to me on Facebook or Instagram comment how much they love our daily walk photos. I’m often a little surprised because most days we get just a couple of handfuls of engagements. Every few weeks, someone will be inspired to comment or send a note to say how much they appreciate the positivity in their day. Or, someone will stop me to share that it’s motivation for them to get out on a walk.
In nearly six years, we have captured hundreds of beautiful, silly, unique moments in our neighborhood. Our postings have essentially become a love letter to our amazing neighborhood nestled in the heart of Fargo, ND. A way of saying: we see you and we’re grateful. For the light, the quiet, the way that beauty shows up even when life feels messy. And, for the moments that make us laugh, just when we need it.
We’re expanding “Scenes from a Morning Walk” to Substack in hopes that these bright moments in our day can shine for even more people. This is a quiet place where we’ll share something simple and steady, a daily photo from a morning walk that starts around 5:45 a.m. Once a week, I’ll go deeper, digging into the themes this practice keeps revealing: noticing, gratitude, identity, seasons and presence.
Thanks for walking with us.