June 2008

The heat and mosquitos weren’t enough to keep 25 women from walking last nite.  It was good to see some familiar faces and there were also many new friends from recent demo’s and classes ready to do some more miles.  It was our night to get off the paved path and unto grass and dirt, my favorite way to walk when the tips of the poles really connect with the earth and move you along.  I do think it’s easier to feel the upper body engagement when off the beaten path.

Conversations on the trail covered work and family and summer plans. The one common thread was how good it was to be out with HOW, this group of women that simply welcomes you into the evening’s activity and encourages you to be true to yourself.  There was lots of energy about the Baker Weekend and the Birke Trek, yea!  And when the walk was over a small group came back to my house to enjoy a cold drink and sitting by the pool and gardens.  The wonder of HOW!

 By the way, our Monday eletter went out to 608 women. We continue to grow and touch more and more women every day.  thank you!

I believe in multi tasking, I’m really quite good at it.  But I do believe that even a good skill can be put to obnoxious use.  When I left this afternoon to drive west for a Nordic walking demo I passed a young woman in the middle of her afternoon walk.  She was moving at a pretty good clip but was wearing a head set, not sure if it was music or a phone, she was pretty animated so she was either singing or talking while she walked.

I can understand singing along to your favorite tunes while you walk, kinda like whistling while you work. But she also had a notebook and was reading notes or maybe comparing them if she was talking, while she was walking. Bummer. I’m pretty sure she didn’t notice that the French lilacs had just burst into bloom overnight or that the lilies at the corner house had opened or that you can smell peonies every where you go right now.

We celebrated the first day of summer with a wedding in my gardens!  A dear friend from work married her sole mate here on the family property this evening.  It was quite the event complete with a beautiful bride, perfect weather, manicured gardens and yards, delicious food, sweet wine, and lots of wonderful friends to here to celebrate their union and new life together.  Michael Monroe played for the wedding and reception, amazing, he was here on my deck playing all my favorite songs. Wow.  We had a few moments of rain that graced us with a double rainbow to bless the wedding. It was truly magical!

And I now know that having 200 people to party here is not such a scary thing…

Some mornings make it worth your while to get up and get going. This morning on our 3 ½ mile Nordic walk we saw (bear with me while we use a well known theme)

8 great blue herons

7 Canadian Geese watching

6 brand new ducklings

5 snapping turtle eggs being layed

4 goslings playing

3 swallows spinning

2 orange koi jumping

And one egret with a green heron fishing

It was a glorious morning!  And it was a Friday, doesn’t get much better.  Happy Solstice

As we approach the solstice I am struck by how unbalanced it is to have all this extra daylight.  Having traveled to the tropics I have learned to appreciate the balanced life that can be experienced when the day is 12 hours of sunlight followed by 12 hours of night.

There is a constant rhythm of life that doesn’t suddenly get turned upside down by longer days or never ending nights.  You don’t feel compelled to get one more thing done, to work just a little longer, to extend your energy over a few more hours as the day and night shift for the summer.  Sometimes summer exhausts me with the expectation, real or otherwise, that with the additional hours of daylight I should somehow be more productive. I can be constantly disappointing myself as I reach the end of the day and collapse knowing there was more to be done. 

Somehow I need to go into these long days with their late sunsets and early sunrises and not burn out. Instead maybe this year I can let myself use these extra hours of daylight to sit a little longer by my pool or walk a little longer on a trail or talk a bit with an old friend.  Time is relative, there really isn’t any more just because it’s summer. But maybe I can use it a little more wisely.