Just Around the Corner

I’m just like everybody else, laid off due to Covid-19 and succumbing to too much couch time in the beginning led to 15 more pounds of love on my hips. When it became painfully obvious that I wouldn’t be going back to work any time soon, I knew I had to make some decisions about the upcoming months. I knew that was going to have to mean getting up off the confines of my oh so comfy couch and putting Netflix on pause.

I decided to check out finishing up my BFA I started 40 years ago – not for a job but just personal satisfaction. Low and behold, to get my degree I had to enroll in P.E. You know- that class you dodged in high school by taking choir or band. Yes, that one. To graduate you must complete one summester. How in the hell do you take P.E. on-line? I thought- wow. This is awesome. It’s going to be more like a health class with lots of reading and quizes and NO sweating!!! WRONG!!!! Fitbit or tracking app is REQUIRED! and I have to walk 10K plus steps a day – 5 days out of 7 all summer session long. I dug my Fitbit out of the kitchen junk drawer,miraculously found the charging cable and plugged it in.

Fast forward to mid summester and I have been walking the bayou hike and bike trailer 6-7 days. I’ve been hitting my 10K a day and yes, sometimes that means walking laps through my house at 10pm to get in those last hundred steps. I typically walk half way up a path and turn around and come back. But the path actually makes a loop through the neighborhood but I didn’t know how far it went and how long it would take. Yesterday I was argueing with myself, keep going? Noooo. Would it be too far? Would I get to hot, would my water bottle hold out..what if…what if…and suddenly I find myself crossing the street at my normal turn around spot. Well, I guess I’m going, I say to myself. I walked the wooded path and enjoyed it’s beauty, the squirrels, the song birds, the blue herion hunting along the bayou, the turtles basking in the sun. I suddenly thought, wow, it would be great to hear a cheerleader about now. Someone to cheer my ambition and encourage me on. Just as I had that thought a red cardinal swooped in over my shoulder and landed on a low limb in front of me. There was my cheerleader! I smiled the biggest grin and said “Thank you Momma, you were always my biggest cheerleader.” I picked up my pace with a renewed energy and I could hear her say, “you’re next success is just around the corner.”

I finished that walk yesterday, 3.2 miles. I know I have a cheerleader whenever I need her and I can’t wait to see what’s just around the corner.

I love each and every one of you.

Juliana Wathen

@julianawathen2020