To Find What I Already Have…

Good day.

The weather is starting to warm up here, so earlier in the afternoon my husband suggested that we walk a nearby “nature trail” that we’d only recently discovered. It’s funny because the entrance to the trail is within walking distance from our house, but neither one of us even knew it was there until a few weeks ago when, driving by, my husband spotted a small sign tucked behind some shrubbery, that marks its entry. Since then, we’ve been saying that we should go, but it’s still been fairly chilly and what with the recent bout of flu that’s plagued our house, exploring the “nature trail” has taken a bit of a backseat. But today, with the sun up and our health restored, we decided to hitch up the dogs and make our way towards the sea.

Although lovely in spots, it’s difficult for me to call the path we walked a true nature trail with a straight face. In truth, we saw a lot more development than we did nature. Here’s just one example:

Nonetheless, it was a perfectly lovely jaunt… about 1/2 a mile from our door to the entrance to the trail, which had mile markers along the way, letting us know that we’d traveled exactly 1.5 miles from start to finish and then another mile and a half back… that plus the half mile home, made for a nice little walk. The weather was perfect and even though I was a bit disappointed by the lack of actual nature, all in all, I felt lucky to live in such a beautiful spot.

When we got home, my husband said, “we should plan some kind of physical activity to do together every weekend.” Usually he and I do our own things when it comes to exercise. Partly this is because I have so much weight to lose and he, well… he doesn’t. And partly this is because, in the past, it’s been very difficult for me to keep up with him. I’ve been so out of shape for so long, while he’s maintained a pretty healthy weight, that any attempts we’ve made to “exercise” together have turned out to be pretty frustrating for both of us. Frustrating for him because he constantly has to slow down in order to wait for me, and frustrating for me for lots and lots of reasons.

It wasn’t always like this, though. When I first moved back here to be with him (way back in 1990) we’d walk the loop around a park (that was nestled right behind the house where I rented a room for the 4 years while I was in college) every single night. Those walks were a joy… we’d walk and talk for hours — working through a million different issues that, seen through our youthful eyes, often seemed insurmountable and always seemed absolutely essential. Of course, at the time, I took those walks for granted. It wasn’t until years later, when I was so out of shape that just walking from my car to the house would would wind me, that I longed for the ability to just go for a walk with my husband again.

Today, as we rounded the corner towards the last leg of our walk, my husband took my hand and said, “you’ve no idea how long I’ve waited for this.” I just smiled, but I *do* know how long he’s waited… because I’ve been waiting too.

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PS: I joined the Healthy You Challenge because a) it was time b) I need the support and c) I really, really wanted a big pink button that said I’d lost 60lbs. :)