Blades of Grass
I’ve always tended to be physically sedentary. I’m comfortable sitting for hours. At long concerts or plays, I will often remain seated through the intermission while everyone around me gets up to stretch their legs.
When we are young we might take risks and play dice with our lives. When we are older, with a single misstep we can break a hip and trigger a downward health spiral that will be hard to recover from.
For about the past five years I’ve done something that has improved my health and might also extend my life. I walk every day. Initially, I was walking 7,000 steps a day until, I needed to cut back due to plantar fasciitis, a condition that causes pain in the arch of my foot.
Now I still walk 3,500 steps every day, though I’ll never catch up to Daveen who has probably walked more than 12,000 steps before she turns off the lights in our kitchen and heads to bed every night.
Since I like to accomplish two or more goals at the same time, as I walk, I practice my social skills, spreading good cheer throughout my neighborhood. I smile and hail my fellow walkers with a nod and cherry “hello”, even though they are walking, from my perspective, in the wrong direction. (Unless I turn left in leaving my front door).
I don’t see many nods in return. Easily understandable, since my neighbors are busy folk generally communing with either their iPhone or with their two dogs. (Never an iPhone AND a dog. Seldom a single dog.)
And that leads me to the leaves of grass along the way.
I’ve started noticing individual blades of grass. What a miracle! The real grass, and even the fake – excuse me – ornamental – grass is simply a marvel, whether created by man or destiny.
I fear that if I further explain this I may be tampering with my own pleasure or, possibly, diminishing the mystery. As in reading a mystery novel, I want to be pleasantly surprised at the end. But isn’t it wonderful to retain a sense of awe, to walk through our lives still astonished by the beauty and nature of the world around us?
Hey, Walt Whitman, I hope we meet along the way. You could share with me your philosophy, and I could fill you in on modern communication.
Where can I find you on Zoom?
Alan