Morning Walk

New Shoes

I felt the need, yes, truly need to find a new pair of tennis shoes last night.  My old Avia tennis shoes, which I had worn since about one year ago this month...had found themselves at the bottom of the pile.  There were three pair of tennis shoes.

My Feet

The Avia's which still looked decent on the top side, but whose underneath side were all the worse from the wear.  Now these weren't just simply "worn" shoes...no, no no....these were walking shoes....that had endured the grief of being on my underprivileged feet, worn on walks that averaged more than six miles per day.....(5 miles some, 12.5 others) and walked and walked and walked...and had conformed themselves to my feet, and had taken the sway of all that weight pounding down on them...and protected my feet from injury.

Lynn Riggs 

Not to make these inanimate objects feel like they were somebody...but, every morning, they would crawl into place and wrap themselves so kindly beneath and around and on top of my feet, that were having to take the pain and agony of moving this bundle along the street....I won't go in to the specifics (440 pounds) on two (13' feet) and two ankles that could barely keep up and the walks, oh god the walks.....

A Pause Spot

There was a point on this walking therapy when I knew I had walked enough...that was usually about two miles from home, when I had the extra path-to-beat to get home....and then, upon sitting down...releasing the shoestrings and the feet fairly pouring out like so much syrup on the floor....and a groan escaping my lips...that I truly felt for these Avia's shoes.

One has to do that much walking to shed that much of ones self....in one years time, it seems that I have managed to walk off about 120 pounds of me, with more taking place with time and effort....The Reeboks that hide in the closet, with those dad-gum Dr. Sholl's foot pads in them, that are now older than my grandson....they too must meet the trash....  The third pair, are green-stained from grass cut so well, that I shall keep them around and wear them on  my forage into the yard.

It is all kind of creepy when you think of it.  Really.  In February last year, (at the huge weight of 440) I got sick one night...felt it coming on about 5:00 o'clock, by 6:00 I was in a chair, covered in blankets, by 11:00 I was on my way to the hospital, where I was diagnosed with pneumonia, and all the crap that happens with it, then my left leg between the knee and ankle got sick, swelled up, turned horribly dark and colored and reddish....and quite frankly, I was once again sitting at the edge of death.  This feeling, can be covered up and withheld from the general public, but based on my past history of quadruple by-pass, stroke, gaining weight etc....it seemed that I had traveled too far down the road, that I had to make my way back, alone, and be human again.

And now there are two pair of shoes.  Sketchers (no pun intended) black and white, and white and black.  13 Wides.  They fit.  And from the first day I walked one block and a half and had to sit on a churches steps to catch my breath....to 12.5 miles...life sure is better.......

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My Lover Asks Me

by Nizar Quabbani

My lover asks me:
"What is the difference between me and the sky?"
The difference, my love,
Is that when you laugh,
I forget about the sky.