3.1 miles
turkey hollow
68 degrees
A beautiful morning! Birds, sun, breeze! Ran twice as much today as I did yesterday. By the end, my legs felt like rubber, but my breathing was okay and I didn’t feel light-headed. I’m continuing to avoid people by running in the dirt trail between edmund and the river road.
10 Things Heard
- cardinals
- black-capped chickadees
- crows
- blue-jays
- robins
- kids playing at minnehaha academy — laughing, yelling, clapping
- blasting from a radio: “HandClap” from Fitz and the Tantrums
- the wind in the trees making the leaves shimmer
- construction sounds: rumbling, scraping, buzzing, roaring
- [put in “Camelot” for the last mile]: “I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight,” “The Simple Joys of Maidenhood,” and “Camelot”
COVID, DAY 7
Physically, I’m almost feeling normal. Mentally, I’m tired of this strange isolation and nowhere-to-go-ness.
Duh: So, even though he tested at least 4 times and got a negative result each time, Scott has COVID. Last night’s 5th test was positive. We both should have realized that, with his symptoms and contact with me, he had to have it, but my very first test was instantly positive so we assumed that if he had it, his would be too. He wasn’t quarantining, so we’re hoping the kids won’t be getting it next.
In related drama: FWA has his driver’s license behind-the-wheel test in Austin today. For a few dark moments last night, we thought he might have to cancel it, which could mean waiting months for another testing time. update: He passed!
current mood: worried (about an ailing parent and unmotivated (or differently? motivated) kids, being an irritating Mom) + impatient (can this quarantine be over, please, I want to go back to open swim)
Found this poem this morning. Reading this first verse, I already liked it, but when I read the “about this poem” section, I fell in love with it.
Oak Skin/ Kris Ringman
Every wood I’ve stepped into
has a watchful crone, a witch whose skin
resembles the bark of an ancient oak.
She spins her wool by moonlight,
she threads her fingers through the moss,
and knows exactly which mushrooms to pick.
I don’t need my hearing to feel the changes
in the wind when she slips out of the gaps
between the rocks and the trees, her voice
I feel in the roots I step on, in the stones
I try to avoid with my bare feet that always
manage to bruise me, test the calluses I’ve grown
with each stride I’ve taken through these trees.
I’ve sung to her beneath the arms of the beeches
reaching towards the birches, though she never
listens to me. I imagine she laughs at the tune
I cannot keep, before moving on, gathering weeds
by the stars, mixing potions to use on people
like me, who would walk into her arms gladly,
wishing she were an old aunt I could visit to learn
everything about this world she keeps to herself.
About this Poem
“As I slowly lost my hearing from the age of six until twenty-one, I spent more and more time in the woods and wild places where my deafness has never mattered. This poem is a homage to those places that I am still enthralled with and the never-ending magic of the forest I wish I could learn and share with other humans.”
—Kris Ringman
Yes! I go to the gorge/the river/the lake because my vision loss doesn’t matter there. I’m not constantly reminded of its loss or my limitations. On the trails I know so well, I can see or, when I can’t, I don’t need to.