Walking without headphones

The first ten minutes are unbearable. The mind, denied its usual soundtrack, starts looking for something to do and finds only the sound of its own complaining.

Then something shifts. The street becomes audible. A gate, a bicycle, a conversation in a language you do not speak. The world has been playing music this whole time and you had been drowning it out.

I do not think listening to music while walking is a vice. But I have started to notice how rarely I am anywhere without a layer between me and it. The headphones are a small, comfortable wall. Sometimes the wall is the point. Sometimes it is just a wall.