Issue #94: How My Daily Morning Walks Changed Everything

Mary Oliver had it right.

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At first, the walks felt like swallowing a pill that made me gag.

I had decided in the middle of winter that, as soon as the weather improved, I would begin every morning with a three-mile walk around my neighborhood. The idea was to get outside and moving immediately, as a buffer against a stressful semester—if I did nothing else for myself today, at least I did this! A winter-long ritual of daily Mary Oliver poems had primed me to expect contemplative strolls where I would pause in wonder at passing migratory birds.

I stalked the weather waiting for a sunny, or at the very least drizzly, break from Portland’s typical spring downpours, then set a pile of clothes on my dresser the night before a promising forecast. Fifteen minutes after my alarm went off the next morning, I was outside.