Day 1: Quoth The Potato, Nevermore

My life can tend towards the sedentary.  I work from home, I live in a small town, I have what is called chronic fatigue or M.E., and it is easy to order anything I need online.  Whilst I enjoy the fresh air and re-awakening of the mind by a good walk, some days the CBB syndrome kicks in (Can't Be Bothered).  And in the past I have found it difficult to determine whether this is a day to rest and not do too much, or a day to push myself a bit and be glad I did.

And what is the difference between rest and too much lying around?  Some people call that a couch potato, when you lie about rather than being active.  Me, I have more of a tendency to become a bed potato. I like my comfy, warm, everything-I-need-around-me bedroom, with two duvets for the winter cold, and I can sit there with my laptop or a good book and while the hours away quite comfortably. 

Lately, though, I'm learning that there is rarely a day on which going for a walk is a bad idea. It doesn't have to be a long walk - some days I do 5 or 10 minutes, other days several hours.  But consistency is the key.  You can achieve great things in life not by starting them, but by starting them and then continuing to do them day after day after day after long, cold, dark day.  I can feel a quote at the edges of my mind about how the difference between good work and excellence, or between genius and invention, is hard work. 

So I'm starting this blog because I don't want to tend towards the potato, no matter what kind.  For the past few weeks I've been making a real effort to go out walking regardless of where I am or what's going on in the sky.  In Arizona, where I was visiting my family a few weeks ago, it was a little easier.  Last week it started snowing in Airdrie.  We have a half a foot already and it's still coming down.  Getting ready for a walk has become complicated.  Layer upon layer upon layer, and I look more like the abominable snowman than anything else!

But this potato saith, nevermore.  And excelsior, and all those feel-good words.  I looked up excelsior for the exact meaning, and it means 'ever higher', which isn't quite my motto.  'Ever onwards' would be more accurate.  I'm not climing Everest (or even Ben Nevis), I'm just walking.  Every day, six days a week, for 90 days.  (God took a day of rest from creating the universe, so I figure I will do the same in my walking-in-all-weathers. I fully expect most Sundays from now on to have beautiful, easy, want-to-walk-in-it weather.  But no matter!)

So today I began my walk of intent.  I suited up and sallied forth, not daunted by the fact that a huge fence has been erected around one of my favourite walking paths.  I found a way around it and had a good 40-minute walk in the driving snow.  It was fairly light, but little snow pieces dashed at my cold face whenever I was walking into the wind.  Snow pieces, not snowflakes.  Snowflakes are much more kind, and appear when there is no wind.  My wellies were legendary, though.  Like walking in snow with socks on, and yet never getting cold.  Highly recommended.

Now I'm cosied up inside, and I can be a bed potato all I want.  Until tomorrow!