One foot in front of the other.

(Pictures from my walks)

“Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence, and nothing too much.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

When Jared left this past summer for his six week internship in California I didn’t know how I’d make it all alone in DC. Growing up right in the middle of six siblings resulted in very little time spent alone. I loved being in the middle of a big family - the noise, the commotion, the messes and the cat fights first resulting in tears, then laughter. I switched from living at home to living with Jared. I have always had a companion and a housemate, or several. The day he left I felt ok – for a minute. I cleaned up the apartment, took a long shower, did my hair extra nice, and then I broke down at Whole Foods. I tried my best not to cry in the vitamin aisle, but the tears swelled up too big and my eyes couldn’t keep em’ in. That night Davin and Deb rescued me from my troubles by taking me to get some dinner and sleeping over, but when they left the next morning the pit in my stomach just grew. I cried most of the second day. I didn’t have even a tiny ray of hope that I’d be ok by myself, thousands of miles from the comfort of my husband and my family.

Besides having my sisters and sister-in-law come for visits, I truly think one of the things that saved me from myself during those six weeks was taking long walks along the river. I would get home from work, strap on my camera and walk. On my walks, I breathed a little deeper, thought a little clearer, and meditated a little harder. I found some comfort in being by myself and I realized that the truth of the matter is: I am never really alone. In his most recent conference talk Elder Jeffery R. Holland described it best when he said: “My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. ‘[N]or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.’ On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.”