Exercise? Ugh.

The doctor handed me 2 prescriptions—the first was for an anti-inflammatory drug. But the second one, while medicinal, was not an oral medication at all. It was a physical mandate. It read: Walk 30 min 5-7 days/week.

Ugh.

The only saving grace was that the purpose of the doctor’s demand was about my staying in motion for 30 minutes not about me breaking  into a sweat. His demand was about the physics of inertia. It was about:  a body in motion stays in motion.

But it still was exercise—something I hate. I would rather scrub bathroom grout lines with a toothbrush for  half an hour than stand on a treadmill or an elliptical machine.

Exercise is not “playing sports”-- which is something I did joyfully for many years.

Exercise is ruefully boring.

I was going to have to make this lemon into some kind of lemonade or better yet Tom Collins.

Which is what I did—by officially becoming a nosy neighbor. I walk the neighborhood not to get exercise but to get ideas—to scope out renovations and lack thereof. I study plantings and light fixtures and color palates. I note architectural details and imagine how the amassed information applies or does not apply to my own house.

Exercise is the by-product of my research.

I perceive walking as data gathering in motion.

And yesterday morning my neighbor Andy yelled to me from the other side of the street Karen-- you are not walking fast enough!

  

Clearly he believed that I was engaged in an unenterprising workout.

But he was wrong.

I was working out my brain and not-so-much my heart.

I was working out my fall plantings in my imagination.

And so I yelled back That’s not why I walk—I only care how long I am out here and laughingly muttered to myself And by the way your masons did an amazing job laying that blue stone on your front walkway---it looks so much better and nicer than the slate you had before.