A December Walk

Taking an early morning walk on a frozen December morning makes one feel very alive. I bundled up in my down jacket, scarf, hat and gloves, and enjoyed the briskness in the air and in my step. As I crest the top of the hill on Crystal Dr, I gaze to the east where the sun is beginning to cast it's light, making the scattered clouds a beautiful pink. I look at Mount McLoughlin and appreciate that I am blessed to live in a valley over which this mountain presides. I like to walk without any music, as it is one of the few times during the day in which I am left to the solitude of my own random thoughts.

As I walk, I notice trash discarded along the way and vow to get in some "butt work" and pick up trash on one of my walks. I wonder where to buy the grabbers that one gets for "free" with their new power scooters - the one that Billy Mays promotes as an added benefit to whatever other miracle product (aka crap) he is pushing.

I pass a couple boys headed to school - clearly brothers. The younger one is riding a scooter but seems to be struggling to keep up with the his older brother. I hope his older brother is patient with him.

As I walk I am always ready with a smile, but a boy who is old enough to walk to school without an adult, will not make eye contact. Noticing he will have to walk past me, he picks an object on which to intently focus which allows him to avoid looking me in the eye. It always makes me a little sad. I am curious to test this common phenomenon and see if girls will also work so hard to avoid eye contact. I wonder if this is more prevelent in this day and age due to the crime and children having to learn to be on guard. Or is it more common here in the west, where we have fences and have learned to really value our privacy? I remember backyards in the mid-west, where one yard runs into another without benefit of fences. I remember a southern black woman I was priviledged to be seated next to on an airplane trip to New Orleans. She complained about her grandson, who was shutting out the world with his headphones. I remember her telling me, when she was a child, if she walked past one of her parents friends without acknowledging them, her parents were told and there was hell to pay. But I really have only lived in my little corner of the world, so I am left to wonder if all children are as guarded as those in my little town.

As I push on through the 28 degree cold, I begin to sweat a little under my hat and down jacket. I pass another boy, maybe in 4th grade. He is shivering in jeans and a short sleeved T shirt. "Where is your jacket?" I want to ask, but of course, he does not make any eye contact and I am left to wonder - Does he have a coat? Does he just not like it? I remember wearing goosebumps rather than a hideous purple fur coat from Goodwill when I was young. Where was his mom this morning? Why did she let him out without a coat? Maybe he was careless and left it on the playground and is learning a valuable lesson. I try to convince myself that this is the case, but find my thoughts returning to him several times during the rest of my walk.

As I arrive home, I jump into my car to warm it up and turn on the seat heaters (wouldn't want to use an ice scraper and then drive in an vehicle which has not been preheated) and I wonder again about the boy without a coat. "He had a backpack", I tell myself. I wonder how teachers deal with their own emotions when they see a child doing without.

I go into the house and gather my things while the vehicle warms. I get a call from my sister, with some good news. I leave for work, energized from my morning walk with all of it's random thoughts, and I am reminded of how blessed I am.