“I’m here and I brought my body with me.” Alfred North Whitehead

Photo by Amor Aggari

Or, as a friend of my ex-husband’s once told him, “Where ever you go, there you are.” No matter how portable you make your life, you’ve still got your body to deal with. To feed it, and care for it, and make it last you a lifetime. Before I left Portland, I went to a really good orthopedic surgeon to get my sore, creaky knees checked out. They had been a bother for about, oh, two or three decades. But I couldn’t ignore their protests any longer. I told the excellent surgeon that I did not want surgery and that might be hard for him because (and yes, I did say this to him), when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

He told me how to mitigate the damage. #1 – lose more weight. Ahhh, I had already lost 30 lbs over the past year, and planned to lose 10 more. “How much?” I asked, smiling and thinking I had it covered.  He said twenty pounds. Damn and double damn. Ten was reachable; twenty would be tough. I wiped the smug smile off my face. I knew he was right. All I have to do is lug a 20 lb. bag of dog food up a set of stairs and I know how my knees feel about that. #2 – go to a physical therapist and get some exercises that would strengthen the muscles and ligaments so my patellas would track properly.

So I dutifully went (once) to a physical therapist, and got a list of exercises. And then my most fabulous trainer in Portland, Lily-Rygh Glen, insisted that I actually do them! (Check Lily-Rygh out if you live in Portland. I’ve played sports and worked with a lot of trainers and coaches over 40+ years, and she is the best of them all. Her website is: flexiblefitnesspdx.com.)

When I packed the most precious things to take with me to Silver City, I included some important papers and notebooks. Well, as I was flipping through one of my notebooks yesterday, out dropped the list of exercises I am supposed to be doing. So Lily-Rygh, in your honor, I have posted them up in my fridge, and will keep them in mind…

I’m not being totally lazy. I’ve only driven my car a few times since I got in town. I walk everywhere on crazy cobbled, bricked, cemented and broken sidewalks. And as I told someone recently, they all seem to be going uphill. But it feels so good to walk. I am getting used to the nearly 6,000 feet elevation.  I am also doing some yoga, Qigong, and strength training classes. Carmon, who is much older than I am, is kicking my ass in all of them. And she is going to kick my ass some more if she reads the much older comment. But that’s what friends are for, right? Right?