Feeling Thankful

The Loop is beautifully paved and marked and signed. Before Pandemica, Brenda Starr and I walked some of it, section by section, gradually increasing our speed and endurance.  We went from barely making it from the parking lot to the trailhead to climbing gentle rises.  We weren't fast, but we were faithful.  

This morning, Taos Bubbe and I covered three and a half miles in little over an hour, out and back from Brandi Fenton Park (which has a lot of parking lots, all of which I drove through, looking for her, before I settled into a space and hoped for the best) to the ramp up to the Swan Bridge ..... the other side of the bridge where Brenda Starr and I started our last walk.  

I had forgotten how wonderful it is to move outdoors.  Except for a lot near the wash where two gigantic excavators were maneuvering, loudly, around yards of huge boulders, there was no extraneous noise.  

Sneakers and bike tires provided the background to the stories we told, stories including friends from college, people we've known for 50 years. I hearkened back to power walking along Lake Michigan with Dr. P, when our children were the same age as our grandchildren are now.  

We were friends then and we are friends now. We told the same kinds of stories, walked at the same kind of pace, reacted the same way to whatever was provoking us that morning.

And it's always been first thing in the morning.

I'm thankful to Science for giving me a new hip.  

I'm thankful to Pima County for providing a lovely space. 

And I'm thankful to all the women I've known along the way, the women who keep me grounded and amused and energized; who broaden my horizons and help narrow my focus; who walk with me, every day, sharing our stories, in one another's lives, no matter how long it's been since we've been on a walk-in-real-life together.

*****

I hope your tomorrow is filled with smells that make you smile and all the feels that fill your heart.

If you are traveling, be safe.

If you're cooking, don't burn the rolls.

If you're hosting, don't forget to pick up G'ma.

I'm posting pictures Thursday and Friday.

I'll be back with verbiage on Monday.

Happy Erev Thanksgiving.