Josh and I walked outside earlier this morning. Each week I’ve been able to go a little bit farther on the camp road. It’s been rainier this past week so I’ve done more walking inside. The first day I did two walks of 7 minutes and 5 minutes. The next day it was 8 and 6, and the day after that I did 10 and 10. I stopped keeping track after that.

I can go farther with someone walking with me. The first time I asked Josh to go with me I said, “Can you walk with me to the sign and back?”, the sign being about the distance from here to that first tree on the right. Parts of this have felt more like rehabilitation than getting over an illness. I have yet to know what to call this peculiar period of my life other than “this time”.

In past years I’ve felt sad to see winter leave. Not this year. I’m not shooing it away but I’m looking forward to watching the grass hit it’s momentary neon green before it deepens into its darker emerald color for the spring. The woods begin to fill back in and the white tails of leaping deer again will hide before our eyes. The sun stays longer.