Gail's Blog

I am in Sea Girt, about to go to Spring Lake beach where the wind is blowing and it might get up to seventy. Here at the shore I get to allow my half-baked ideas and thoughts to come to the surface and percolate. I have wondered how on earth I've fallen so behind on taking care of my precious body/mind. I work a lot, but during work and between work I seem to take on the mindset of a beleaguered old person. "Oh, my back! I'm getting too old for this!" Maybe I am. In the meantime I struggle with the desire to keep up all commitments and still have a exercise discipline that includes yoga, weight training, and jogging. I just completed a walk/jog route from this house to Sea Girt beach and back. At first my old lady within was complaining bitterly that she was not up to it but I kept my focus, thanks to Pandora's dance aerobics channel. I felt like a hero. Heroine? But when I go home will I find the time to do this, to do yoga? Gym? How do other people do

When I was younger, my children in school, done with half-day preschool teaching, I would come here and sit. Sometimes I would take out my Pentax K-1000 and take pictures. Once I saw two women in a canoe and shot a series of them that I still have in an envelope somewhere. Other times I would think of my Greek grandfather, how he would sit and just look at water or woods, smoking. I always thought of him in nature because he was so at home in wilder places. Today I left work after two afternoon conferences. While driving home, planning to work on arrival, I had a sudden, jarring memory of how I used to allow myself the time to river-sit between work and other things. Resolutely, I drove past my exit and parked by the water instead. Miraculous! A break between work and work! The river still flows even though I haven't been watching it do so! I think I should take more breaks like this. I don't want to miss the river all together before I die. An Iranian father said to m