Full Circle

I've got a lot to catch up on.  Wednesday and Thursday evenings were typical and uneventful SoCo walks with Banks, but I HAVE learned one new thing.  (It is so embarrasing, being this tech-clueless). If I take my iphone with me, all I have to do is click on "clock" then "start" and it times my walk for me.  No, it doesn't figure out averages or anything like that, but at least it doesn't freeze up, and it's free.  So that's my go-to gadget for the foreseeable future.  That icon has been on my phone since I got it.  Again, embarrasing.

Yesterday I made a difficult trip to Houston to see my Uncle Frank for the last time.  He's 94 and in hospice there, and is very much in the end stages.  He was unresponsive, and I have no way of knowing if he heard me, as I held his hand and whispered my goodbyes.  My cousin and cousin-in-law, Barbara and Rita, were there and they, along with Uncle Frank's two sons, have been keeping around-the-clock vigils in shifts.  It was a sad and tearful visit, but I left grateful that he is so loved and cherished by his family.

Uncle Frank was an avid exerciser into his late 80s, and I know he would have loved my blog and my commitment to five miles a day.  I dedicated that day's walk to him.  I had business in Spring, about 40 minutes away, and decided to do my walk there.  I landed in, I believe, "Old Town Spring," an older section of the city featuring tons of little shops -- herb therapy, candles, meats, dolls, birdhouses, New Age crystals -- just about any specialty you could imagine -- placed, improbably, in the midst of a rather run-down neighborhood.  I walked through the streets of both the shop area and the community (Have these people ever heard of a sidewalk? I muttered to myself, dodging cars and strollers), and finally found a park-like setting that gave me a good couple of miles. 

On the way back, I passed a day care center where the children were outside on this glorious afternoon.  Spying me, several ran to the fence and asked what I was doing.  "Just going for a walk," I replied.  The rest of the conversation took place, as playground discussions always do, at top volume.  "WHY?" shouted a little girl.  "BECAUSE SHE WANTS SOME FRESH AIR!!" yelled another.  "IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY, ISN'T IT MISS?"  OMG....I could feel my heart starting to melt.  They saw my iphone and asked why I had that. "I like to take walks and take pictures of things I see along the way."  'TAKE A PICTURE OF US!!!!" they shrieked, in unison.  So I did.  Maybe there are rules about that sort of thing, in this hypervigilent age, but I needed it.  After a half hour in an assisted living facility, with residents in various stages of dementia and other illnesses, I NEEDED to take away with me an image of that youth, that innocence, that utter joy in being alive. 

Uncle Frank is slipping away, and these kids are barely out of the gate.  I walked away and sent up a prayer for all of them -- for health, peace, prosperity, happiness, love and every other good thing the world has to offer. 

Godspeed, Uncle Frank.