Ever since our daugther coerced me into signing up for the "Dash to the Finish" for the NYC Marathon, I have been on a training tear with my walking regiment.
Well, regiment may be overstating things. Let's just say I started walking again. Add in some family drama which I was on the losing end of, and you've got all sorts of motivation.
On my daily walks leading up to NYC Marathon weekend, I would report that I was "in training" --- much to the disdain/humor of our daughter.
Fact is, I was - in training for "letting go"; "sorting out"; "trying to get it right".
Now NYC Marathon has come and gone - amazing weekend.
The walking eroded after I achieved that goal. But I knew I wanted -and needed to keep it up. Loads of excuses - market is up, market is down, weather is bad, blah...blah...blah.
Today I vowed to start again and in spite of the cold and wind, I was ready - dressed in multiple layers by 3pm - plenty of time to do my hour walk before the sun falls - at this time of year by 5pm.
Then the phone rang -- fast forward it is now 4:45, sun falling, too dark to be safe to walk the roads but still determined.
And so I went to an ole' favorite, Mountain Park which happens to be a Basking Ridge park but you would sure think you were in my town of Warren by it's location...anyway, off I drove, confident that there would be at least a few lights on and knowing that at minimum, I would be "off road"...
My goal...walk for one hour. There was a girls soccer practice at one end of the park and a boys soccer practice at the other ---- some lighting - much of the pathways dark...off I went. I found the darkest parts of the walk oddly calming. Along the way I exchanged pleasantries with a woman with a dog and a man walking.
After several times around, I came upon the man walking again - surprised, actually, in his words, "did I frighten you?" and the answer was yes. It wasn't him of course, it was me, lost in my thoughts coming upon another creature --- more surprise than fear --- whatever, a springboard....
We stopped, shook hands, introduced ourselves....talked a while, no a really long while. My walking goals were not achieved, but my human interaction goals were absolutely exceeded.
If you enjoy my style of writing - please let me know. And if you can advise me on how better to share it with the world, I would appreciate you input very much.
Comments(12)