I love clothes. I do. If you know me you know that. And if you don’t, now you do. But these days I wear my favorite jeans, T-shirt or hoodie. So, for a change, I decided to wear a dress and a wide-brimmed hat on my walk. I’m trying to wake up the creative gene, spark my imagination, rediscover the “child artist”, as Julia Cameron writes in the Artist’s Way. It was like playing dress up.

I planned to listen to a webinar for work. Ear buds make my ears ache from all the years of listening to loud music on runs and bike rides and I haven’t yet figured out how to wear head phones with a straw hat so I listened to the webinar holding my phone to my ear while doing arm circles with the other to help tone the upper arm, 32 one direction then reverse, four times. You can make them bigger as you go which makes it harder, obviously. When I switch arms I realize my hearing isn’t as good in the right ear.

Oh, the sky was blue that day. Todd and I kept saying it was like a Washington Island day with lattes and avocado toast at Red Cup, long bike rides and naps with Old Dog. We moved slowly through those days watching the lake from the deck, wading out a couple hundred yards because the water was so low. Not until we sold it did it finally rise back up to meet the sandy beach. Such is life. The new owners are pleased.

Now is the time to move slower, to watch, to pray, to listen, to walk while you work if you want, to eat avocado toast outside in the breeze instead of at your desk. To take a break and have tea. Now is the time to take time to see the eyes above the masks smile back. Now is the time to see eternity at work in the small moments.

I walked through Lake Park and down the hill with woods on one side and traffic on the other. At the bottom I saw two women. One on her phone, the other resting on the grass. They seemed okay, we exchanged nods, I almost walked past but something stopped me long enough to see that the woman on the grass was in distress.

Tia and Victoria had walked an extra mile. Victoria was wet with sweat. When I suggested water, she agreed. “Water…would be good.”

Back up the hill, shortcut through the woods, I ran for water and borrowed Todd’s car which was sitting on the street. The two ladies were already working their way up the hill when I returned. I couldn’t figure out how to unlock the doors so I had to park and open it up from the outside using the beeper. “Sorry, this is my husband’s car.”

“But you sure can drive stick!” Victoria said, looking a little better with some cool air and water as we drove along and talked. I pulled into the parking lot overlooking the bluff. In that short amount of time we had bonded. I gave Victoria a hand to help her out of the car and do you think for one moment COVID ever once occurred to me? Not until we were about to exchange hugs did we realize we should air hug.

“Hope to see you at Danceworks.” I said and we said our goodbyes.

“Did you at least roll down the window?” Todd asked as I walked into the kitchen.

“No, I had the air on.” He was at the table Googling ‘incubation period’. “How long before I know if I caught it..?” I said suddenly feeling weak, maybe from running up the hill overdressed.

“Five to six days. You could have called her an ambulance,” Todd now looked a little distressed. It didn’t occur to me. All I could think about was seeing her safe. That’s how God thinks about us. And that’s all I have to say about that.