I am grateful for my friend Nancy, who encouraged me to get back into my walking routine, long-dormant and much missed. This is our second week of meeting Monday/Wednesday/Friday at the same local park mentioned above, and now I am in obsessed mode (conjuring a sweet memory of 20 years ago), my legs twitching to get out of bed and hit the pavement. I am all about "hey, let's walk for an hour, then sit on a bench, then head back to the car", while N likes to quantify things, and lets me know we have taken about 6,500 steps. It's a good balance. We walk, we talk (ooooh, so much talking that I can't remember what I told her before and what is still to be shared!), we laugh, and we try not to worry. Now Eileen and I are doing the same thing Tuesdays and Thursdays, except that next week we will have to move our routine to evenings, since she is a teacher, and will be doing her instructions online until the end of this school year.
We also notice all sorts of nature (squirrels, iguanas, ducks and, most recently turtles). E took the photo on the left, and it was moving much more quickly than I would have thought possible for something so small (think pet store turtles from when we were young). N caught the image on the right (huge!), and we were guessing it was a mama as, with each rotation we watched it go through the process of digging a hole, then seemingly deposit eggs, then cover the hole with sand. Wow!
In the late-afternoons (4:00 p.m.-ish), a few times a week, I go down to our condo pool to do various stretches (thankyoujesus for the weightlessness of water) and swim laps (if my rudimentary butterfly/frog stroke can be considered such). I then curl up on one of the lounge chairs to read my book as well as to get some sun, one hour front, one hour back, then head upstairs.
I am super-tan, relaxed as much as I can during these crazy days, and make plenty of time for skin care: Origins VitaZing™ SPF 15 Energy-boosting Moisturizer in the morning, Origins Plantscription™ Anti-Aging Power Serum at night. Hey, what else is there to do, right?!?
Given the circumstances, this is going to sound ridiculously superficial, but... I miss my wardrobe: my cute dresses, my tunics and leggings, my shorts and cold-shoulder tops. Now I segue from my nightgown... to a T-shirt and athletic skorts or yoga capris... to my bathing suit... back to my nightgown. Then I remind myself that I hope this is the worst problem I face each day. Perspective is everything. Ommmmmmm.
SONG: The Rain, The Park, & Other Things by The Cowsills
BOOK: Walking Each Other Home by Melanie Boster, David W. Boster (photographer)
POEM: Keeping Quiet by Pablo Neruda
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
QUOTE: “Practically speaking, a life that is vowed to simplicity, appropriate boldness, good humor, gratitude, unstinting work and play, and lots of walking, brings us close to the actually existing world and its wholeness.” ~ Gary Snyder
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