Walking

During my walk
when one foot touches the earth
am I honoring someone or something?
The bones buried under the land?
Or the sustenance that rises up the roots
Or the stories heard by the tress told
by storms and musical wind?

I’m resting on a bench, listening
to the music around me, movements
like breaking twigs and leaves scattering
an older lady passes by, we exchange greetings
and talk about the 100 vines of newly planted cabernet,
surrounded by special grain of sand,
on the bend of the walkway.in front of us.

We walk along the path everyday and only
now we do meet. A casual conversation,
tidbits of solace during solitary walks.
They add like intertwining yarn
in beauty and strength.

After a while we say so long
resume our ordinary time.

photo: from m mobile phone.

A day like today

The day is mildly cloudy with a cool breeze.
I climb the bridge that arches over the river
I stop once, before the crest, for my heart to catch up
At the Riverfront I rest on a bench for sips of water
Lunch at CIA-Copia at the Oxbow Market
My return walk home, the hour is more sunny, warmer
14, 000 steps.

My Monday walk to fitness

For the last 2 weeks I started to walk everyday with two days off a week. Today is hot with a mild cool breeze. What did I see today?

From top of Maxwell Bridge in Imola Avenue looking down Napa River are kayakers.

I climbed the bridge and down to Kennedy Park where the trail joins the Napa River Trail and I met a gentleman pushing a stroller where his big dog is riding. Sometimes the dog rides a surfboard, sometime the dog walks and other times rides the stroller he said.That’s the bridge I climbed and down.

Napa Downtown’s renovation includes a new hotel, Archer Hotel and new stores and wine tasting venues. The hotel has a simple modern architecture. Very pleasing to the eye.

On the way back I passed by a samll garden with pink trumpets.

I made my 10, 000 steps for the day.

My Monday walk

note: Lately I have been walking almost everyday. On Monday I did one of my long walks. There are are a lot to see outdoors.

New encounters

87 degrees, sunny with some breeze. Mrs. Abstract kisses me goodbye. She is going to play Mexican Train with her friends from the Women’s Guild. I have a good reason to stay home and read.

Athletes subject themselves to “rigorous and exhausting discipline, giving up many comforts and pleasures.The contemplatives, (or monks) also submit themselves also to rigorous regimen.

When I consider the disciplines of the athletes and monks and compare them to myself I’m a small pebble in comparison. Their stories are distant but not too far away from me.

I pick my staff, and my cap and go out the house and start walking towards the river.

A man, paraplegic, sitting on a wheelchair under a shade of a tree near the river, greets me with smile. He is enjoying the breeze. After a short conversation, we part after wishing each other a good day.

While standing on the river bank I see a sail boat with two riders coming to the inlet. I wave to them and the man greets me. I greet him back and wish the two riders a good day.

Returning from the river I meet a gentleman wearing a yellow cap and sitting on a bench. We start talking. I am 93, he says when I ask him how old he is.

Returning home I see a man and his dog walking from the opposite end of the walkway.We exchange pleasantries. He introduces his dog as a cockerpood. He says it’s a breed between a cocker spaniel and a poodle. She is a quiet dog, hardly barks her master says.

My cell phone says 4 miles and 9,000 steps. It may not be accurate..

The meaning of reality is how one faces reality.

Reflections

I have been writing lately mainly about my walks
I’m not that old to know that nasturtiums are edible
The leaves are rich in vitamins and calcium
neglible bitterness which chard also possessed.

I like bitter melons and they are bitter
I don’t have to make it philosophical
like pain and rejections that acceptance makes us stronger

Sweat and scenery ride together each cajoling each other
like two friends ribbing and sometimes hurting each oher

When we were children ghosts made us cry and curious
We told our stories and we laughed.

We follow the bent of our mind with the best effort
without allowing any passing moment without uttering gratitude.

Without a car I am compelled to walk
Which begins as reluctance to accept
converts to a blessing and daily gratitude.

What are these flowers?

Part of the Riverfront walk. Cool and sunny. Nice cloud formations.

Inside Oxbow Public Market

Look for the white heron

How to think your way

For six days in a row I have been walking for at least one hour each day. It was prompted by my heart doctor that I should be more commited to my health and fitness. I started reading a book, Let Your Mind Run, A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory by an American long distance runner and Olympic medalist, Deena Kastor, co-written with Michele Hamilton.

It’s an honest, frank ,and inspiring story of how Deena Kastor started running, baring the essentials of her training and personal insights in what winning and losing mean. Her training helps her tremendously not just to be the best athlete but also how to be a better person.

I find that I can apply her training as a runner to me for my fitness and health. She wrote about how she inspires herself to enjoy the rigors of training. She says: “As an athlete I’ve found aside from hard work, the greatest tools for success are optimism and gratitude.These practices have led to happiness and the routine pause to realize I’m living the life I love and dreamed of.”

Her:blog

Today was warmer than yesterday.I walked for 75 minutes in the neighborhood.

To walk another day

To the river, along the river and over the river. That’s what I did in my walk to fitness today.

Today I drove to library to return a book, After Alice by Gregory Maguire, a book I joyously finished reading. A return to Wonderland of Alice. A return to childhood lightened my heart.

And I got a new book, Ordinary Light, A memoir, by Tracy K. Smith, the Poet Laureate of the United States. I also just finished Life on Mars, one of her book of poems.

From the libaray, I walked on the Riverfront , over a bridge then to the Vine Trail which connect to Kennedy Park.

The weather today was similar to yesterday, sunny with a cool breeze. I had to walk with a warmup top on.

today: 76 minutes.9,000 steps.
Yesterday: 11,000 steps.

I have to alternate in a certain way long and short distances.

Walking back to fitness

note: Instead of walking to the river from the condo I did something slightly different today.

Mrs. Abstract and I drove to Synergy, the Wellness Center next to the hospital, While she was doing her aquatic exercises I walked to the Woodlands Trail, 1.2 miles paved trail, which runs along Napa River. It took me 15 minutes to get to the trailhead. I am a slow walker.The temperature was in the high 60’s with a cool breeze. The trail is lined by trees and really a forest between the trail and Napa River. Lot of shadows on the trail with some patches in open air and all sunny.

I Walked the trail then walked back to Synergy. I worked out for 45 minutes then returned home.

I have to gain back my cardiac fitness. Last time I saw my physician, he told me I was getting lazy. I was not doing enough of my fitness program. Remember I had my cardiac surgery January 2017.

A friend picked up Mrs. Abstract after her aquatics and they went to lunch.

Walking backwards

I like to walk backwards
like dancing tango without a partner
my toes on the threshold of the past
my heel on the door of the present
the imbalance feels auckward and untidy
makes me falls backward into the future
my thoughts entangled, confused.
The teacher looks at my notebook full of doodles
she smiles and shakes her head
I always forget to bring an eraser
A girl points to me my mistakes
We become friends and adventurers,
thinking we can fix broken things ourselves
We laugh at our perils
Like you and me, now, at forty five.