Journey's End, Beginning Again

Three months of walking, more than 200 miles accumulated, and striding through obstacles that include multiple family illnesses, injuries, overcrowded schedules, and unanticipated speed bumps, one journey has to come to an end so another may begin. From the very beginning I've acknowledged that this was a trifold journey, and while I've made deliberate strides along the physical, the mental and spiritual journeys have progressed less successfully. After some studied reflection in recent days, however, I've decided to make a crucial step for both.

This blog has to end.

I am a writer by profession and my career demands 60-80 or more articles, blogs, newsletters, and other pieces of writing each month, along with countless hours of emails, promotion, and research that amount to tens of thousands of words. This blog does not count toward that total. Too often extra entries fall by the wayside in the crush of payable work, and every moment that I spend on additional words feels like an extension of work rather than a refreshment of mind and spirit. To give more time to both the mental and spiritual journeys, this blog is going to cease, but another will continue with occasional updates along this 1,000-mile path.

The one hobby I have (though not the only one I long to have) is birding, and I chronicle my feathered flights on another blog, Backyard Birds Utah. It is there that this journey will continue and fittingly so, as while the season warms and days grow longer I hope to spend more of my accumulated steps tracing miles of backcountry and mountain trails in search of winged wonders, something I do far too infrequently these days. But when I take one day to hike such a trail and see such a bird, I simply don't have time to do two blog posts about the same integrated event.

I hope you'll join me there, flying along this goal even as I walk each further mile. I'm not going to stop counting my mileage (you'll find the mileage tracker from the right hand column here replicated and continuing its updates there), but I'm going to make it less a part of work and more a part of mind and spirit. Maybe that's the first mistake to learn from - focusing on the physical is not the way to make the changes that are necessary, but once the mind and spirit are in sync, the body will follow.

I hope you'll follow along as this new part of the journey takes flight.

Family Tree

I keep walking and walking, taking some large steps here and small steps there along three journeys, but today was a wakeup call. My mother, whose health has been relatively poor since a stroke 15 years ago, is in the hospital with a broken ankle (thankfully nothing more severe), but in conversing with her and rehashing the family's health, I realized for the first time what weak roots I have, and how close they are to determining the reach of my health.

Risks abound on different branches of my family tree - diabetes, cancer and obesity are the largest looming shadows oft repeated among different family members both close and far, with a host of smaller conditions associated with each. Fortunately, some of my roots are stronger than others, and I have a very uneventful medical history myself. But what events may lie in my future health? Genetics always plays a role in how one's roots grow, but they aren't the only deciding factor.

I've recently begun adding houseplants back into my home decor, and I prefer to purchase smaller, more neglected plants - those on discount and clearance racks that so many have already given up on. With tender care and proper treatment, however, even a small, weak, or damaged plant can thrive again. And with the same consideration of my own care and treatment, I want to continue to thrive - for myself, for my husband, for my family. Time to take a few more steps for better diet, stronger exercise, and stress management.

I don't want to let my own stroke or heart attack be a final wake up call in my family tree, or a call so severe that there is no answer loud enough to change it; don't let a similar tragedy end your tree.

Yellow Brick Road

Every journey leads us along our own yellow brick road, but where? Dorothy wanted to get back home, and every walk has to lead back home someday, whether that home is in the same place or moves to a new place as you take new strides along those bricks.

I mapped out a few bricks this week, a path we call "the bone" because of the shape of joined cul-de-sacs in one section our neighborhood, and one lap brings me back home after a brisk walk. While I've never before lived in a dead-end neighborhood, I find it peaceful and enjoyable, particularly for outdoor activities. Children can play outside without fear of high speed traffic, we can walk through the entire neighborhood without disturbance, and there is a sense of getting to know one's neighbors more intimately (not too intimately, please!). While the neighborhood is small - this yellow brick road is only a total seven-tenths of a mile - it is convenient to the city at large, yet still has that private, out-of-the-way sense. This is a walk I like to take frequently, several times a day if I can manage it, and that mileage adds up.

What short walk - one part of your yellow brick road - is one of your favorites?

Treat Your Feet

With so much walking - my mileage has now passed 165 miles - my feet take a beating. Over the past dozens of miles, though, I've learned that a treat for the feet is a treat for the whole body, and helps refresh the spirit.

Options I use for pampering my peds include...

• Natural, fragrant soaps with rich foam
• Long, luxurious soaks in a hot bubble bath
• Vigorous rounds with a pumice stone
• Warm, soft, spa socks
• New insoles in well broken-in sneakers

I do not, however, go for pedicures - never have, and have no intention of it. While some may find it relaxing, I find it a waste, at least for me. I do not wear sandals or other open-toed shoes (totally impractical when one is hiking through the woods), and so any colors, shapings, or other treatments would not be visible for admiration. The time to get a pedicure I'd rather spend actually on my feet, with more walking!

How do you treat your feet after a long day's walking? Share your ideas - my feet could use them!

Sick, In So Many Ways

The past two weeks have not been what I'd hoped would pass for normal; illness has run rampant through the family, jumping from member to member, and bringing with it not only typical symptoms but also lethargy, a lack of focus and a general loss of motivation for any meaningful task.

The beauty of walking this journey, however, is that even on sick days I'm still able to keep moving. The pace may slow and the intensity drops, but the feet do still keep moving, one step at a time. Each day hasn't brought my total mileage as high as I'd prefer, but so long as it does continue to rise, no matter how small the increments, that is progress.

Sickness is more than physical, however. There are domestic issues with extended family, acquaintances and colleagues that I'm sick of juggling, work issues with deadlines, clients and paperwork that I'm sick of reshuffling and diet issues with time, taste and preparation that I'm sick of needing to balance to get everything just right for each day. This is the time when I begin to look forward to summer travel - when schedules lighten, children are out of school, and time just seems more plentiful - but with bitter cold temperatures searing my lungs on every walk, it still seems far away.

Today I'm also getting that queasy, sick, anxious feeling about tomorrow's milestone; another month's weigh in. The last progress check was a grave disappointment, and I just cannot judge how well this month has gone - in some ways better, in some ways worse. But how much better and how much worse? Time will tell, scales will tell, measuring tapes will tell. I would say that better health is a reward no matter what numbers add up to, but with so much overall sickness, that's just not the psychological boost it could have been right now.

But at least tomorrow can begin healing. A new month is always an opportunity to be optimistic.