I say “sort of” because I had no single epiphanous moment, as I often do. Rather, I had several ideas come to me, over a day’s time.

For some time, I have been going down the spiral slowly, physically and mentally. I knew this but lacked the energy to change direction and send it back upwards. I was dealing with the inertia of my spirit. But today I decided it was time to send the spiral back upwards.

Alys and Tyra in the playground of higher learning

This is such a silly happenstance that I hesitate to write about it. But then, no one is reading my dispatches these days. I am doing this in order to retain my identity as a writer.

Last night a neighbor told me her young grandchildren recently ran Mt. Marathon in Seward. This is a grueling uphill run followed by an even more grueling downhill run. According to my neighbor, the age range was 10-80. I have always seen this race as being beyond my physical abilities.

Today, I woke up thinking that while I might not ever be in good enough shape to do the Mt. Marathon run, I might someday be in good enough shape to again run on a consistent basis.

So I decided to resume doing my body awareness work. I again sat in the chair in the living room and did some reading. To me, this is a form of meditation. I read a book written by a doctor about running injuries. It is a pretty basic book, but here and there are things I did not know.

I then did body awareness work. It was a beautiful, sunny day, slightly breezy. After, I went outside and ran the loop. Then I walked and ran it with Tinni. It was not that difficult. In fact, it wasn’t difficult at all. This means I’m not in as bad a shape as I presumed. I also felt good after, both mentally and physically. I felt no twinges. And I felt a sense of accomplishment.

This is the revelatory part. I cannot run every day. I don’t have the time. I can’t work with the horses every day. I don’t have the time. So I will alternate days in which I do animal/human body awareness. Tomorrow, Sunday, is going to be a horse day. I’ll first read up and figure out what I’m going to do with the animals, then spend time in the Playground of Higher learning, working with them. Monday is going to be a human day. I’ll do what I did today.

If I am serious about resuming running, I’ll have to find a personal trainer, so as to keep motivated. This is going to be the hard part. Will I do all this? Today I think that I will. Tomorrow I may think differently.

Right now, at this very minute, I am slowly going up the spiral. I owe it to myself to keep up the momentum. This is not going to be easy. It is going to be difficult. Let’s see how it goes.

Next: 200. 7//24/22: No Regrets