CMP Review 2023-11-25

November 25, 2023

Through the week’s busyness, I kept saying to myself, “I’ve got to go for a walk.” As the days passed and the pressure mounted, I repeated it aloud a handful of times. As I slid my laptop into my bag to work on while waiting for my youngest to finish class, my other son said, “Hey, have you been on the trail that runs through campus? Maybe you should take your walk there.”

By the time I’d arrived, the idea had elbowed its way past my to-do list and the trailhead was found. Ten steps into the woods and my shoulders relaxed. They relaxed even more as I stopped to inhale the fragrant yellow blooms of witch hazel. Then I heard the thin high whistle of a cedar waxwing and my heart soared—a friend from the northeast whom I hadn’t seen since moving to Tennessee. I followed his call to a grove of juniper, and, though I never caught sight of him, it was enough to know he was there.

So, this is where I am in life—my grown children now tell me to go out to play while the birds remind me that each day has enough trouble of its own. If you hear a whisper say, “Go for a walk,” be sure to heed it.

@rbaburina