Wednesday Walks

I have found that it is the rate of progress that most people struggle to understand. 
It is so slow that the average onlooker cannot even spot it. But I can and so I’m sharing it with you.

I have been working on my walking for years now. Once upon a time I had to be wheeled from my dining room bed to the downstairs toilet. The distance can’t have been much more than 15 metres. So when I started to walk again, and ever-ever-so-gently coax my body into using the muscles they had used for two decades without even having to think about it, I started very small. 

I felt it was important to try to get some fresh air as often as possible. Remember that at this point, I was still too poorly to climb the stairs to my bedroom. 
So to start myself off I would stand on the front step for some fresh air. You might remember my Front Step Adventures if you follow me on Instagram. And when my body was feeling up to it I would shuffle along the path to the front gate and back. It was perhaps a 3 metre walk at most. 

After months of shuffling along that path to the front gate I tried my luck at walking a little further; across the road and back again. 

Months later and I made it even further; down to the bottom of the road. 
These ‘walks’ were never something I managed every single day. And it really was months before I upped the distance. 

Now I am trying to introduce them again. I am so much better than I was back then but my energy is being spent in other ways now. Daily walks are not a sensible aim for me just now. And so I’ve decided to aim for weekly ones. Wednesday walks! 

Today was my first and according to Google Maps I have plodded along our road for 160 metres, turned around and came back again. 320 metres!!!! It has taken over six years to get this far. 

320 metres worth of fresh air and feeling the cold on my face. There were happy tears (more sobbing with happiness and pride really!) when I made it back home again. 
For the next few weeks I will try to walk the same distance before I decide to go a little further. 

Hooray for progress, however slow it may be.