That is the word I would use to describe the almost 3 mile walk I just took. It was very mild here and although it was not sunny, Spring was definitely in the air. While I have walked on mild days in January there are many differences today. Today, the smells are different, and like I can smell the coming of the first snow in Autumn, I can smell Spring. I can’t tell you exactly what it is but it is unmistakable and fills me with a hope and faith that is hard to describe. This walk did as much if not more for my mental fitness as for my physical. I walked with Sassy and Zoey, not daring to take Delilah, who would probably decided a few hundred feet into the walk, that she did not want to continue. She is truly too heavy for me to lift up and I had no stroller to wheel her home in, if I somehow managed to lift her. When I take her, Jimi and I will need to go together and if she decides to just lie down and not move any more, one of us will have to run back home for the car.
Anyway, I walked with a smile on my face, so grateful for the chance to walk in the beauty that surrounds me. As I get older I know too well just how short life is. How we never know if it will be our last day or a loved one’s last day on this Earth. Given the tragedy in Japan, I do not take lightly the fact that I can walk, breathe fresh air and feel safe. Sometimes I feel like Heidi, but I love “my mountain.” It will not be long until the remaining thin layer of ice on the lake melts, until the water is full of boats and kids and life. While I was thinking of why it felt so different to walk today than say in January on a mild day, it hit me! The birds, the beautiful songbirds, our snow birds who take off to spend their winters in the south were back. Not only were they back but they were singing loudly and it was so beautiful to hear. As we came upon a house on the other side of the lake, a man who was putting up sheet rock inside a house stepped outside. It was near quitting time for him and he was putting some of his tools in the bed of his truck. He saw Sassy first and called to his co-worker in the house, “Hey, a little dog!” Then he saw Zoey and I approach. He was adjusting things in his truck and he said, “Wow, more people walking around here then cars.” I don’t know if he expected this small private lake to be like the Indy 500, but he said it, like it almost annoyed him.
I replied, “Well, it’s a beautiful day!”
“Could be better”, was his flat reply.
I thought for a moment, maybe he was having a bad day. Maybe he was the kind of person who felt everything could be better. Maybe, he had a fight with his wife or lost someone close to him. However, I told him that is was good enough and that it will get better. He muttered something and I thought a moment and as I passed the house I turned and looked over my shoulder in his direction and called out, “I’ll take it!”
The day lilies breaking through the ground.
Who says you can’t bury your head in the snow?
Chuck
