Today, a walk

Today I had a doctor appointment at 7:45. After, I decided to walk back to the office. It wasn’t that far. It was maybe four miles away. I chose to walk because I felt I needed to. I walked familiar regions, but I’d never walked this path before. Some things were familiar. Many things were new. At one point I had to pee. I paused in the corner of a wall just off and well hidden from the traffic of busy streets to relieve myself. I continued, working myself south and east. On Cherry street, just south of the Plaza after passing through the university, I happened by the house of a sometimes client whose house I’ve heard about, but never seen. It’s shape is an octogon. It is ’60s weird. But beautiful in its stance. It sits as an anomaly in its neighborhood of stately mansions. I walked on down Holmes where a few blocks further south I would be within three blocks of the office. As I walked, I thought, I have never seen these streets before. It was an adventure I thought might take an hour (turned out to be 1:20). I was tiring. I thought I could make it. I knew I would make it.

I walk a brisk pace. Many who walk with me sometimes say “Hey, where’s the fire?

I thought about the events of the past few weeks. I was on an adventure. I still am. One thing I thought about: At the start of my brother’s ride on Saturday, they had a table with pictures of my brother in frames on the registration table. As I looked at his pictures I came to know my brother in a way I’d not seen before. He was happy in those pictures.  He had a family who was happy to know him just the way he was. A family I’d never known. It made me happy for him. It made me sad I didn’t know this side of him.

When I topped the hill where I could see the office, I was exhausted, but invigorated. The weather was cool, humid, drizzley–I was wet from the exertion and the weather, but I felt, for the first time in weeks, good.