I have taken a break from regular posting, but wanted to write to share my walking experience in New York. That’s NYC, the Big Apple.
Not somewhere you’d think of going for exercise, unless maybe you’re coming here for the New York marathon. I always find I walk more and exercise better here though.
Maybe it’s the short north-south blocks? Or the fact that it’s faster to walk than take the subway a few stops. But it’s a joy for me. And it seems easier.
I have taken on a management job in my business life, so my last 6 months have been incredibly intense. A new job plus the old job, until I redistributed my work left precious little time for myself. I will ultimately have more time for things like aquafit classes, since I’m no longer a “producer,” but the transition left little time to myself. This meant I wasn’t sure if I would be able to handle my typical level of NYC walking – it’s been fine though!
Yesterday I walked the High Line, the well-known elevated park in Chelsea. I walked Greenwich Village, and then through SoHo, where I bought a new dress. I put the dress on over my shorts and met up with a client I have worked remotely with but had never met. Then I walked the Financial District, saw some music and jumped on the subway to go home. In the end it was almost 22,000 steps.
I feel it today, but not in a bad way. I just got out of the bath and am headed out for Day 2.
May is one of my favorite months of the year– it marks the end of my school year and start of my summer, even if the weather doesn’t always conform to my hopes and expectations… This winter and spring have been especially busy with work and family and health business, so I’m especially looking forward to a change of pace, change of scene and change of routine. Here are 5 things I’m really looking forward to.
First: plants!
Last summer I had a nice herb garden on my back porch, and I plan to do the same this year. My university greenhouse is having an herb sale on Tuesday, and some colleagues and I will be first in line to get some deals. Also, my jade and aloe plants sorely need pruning, so I’ll be potting and giving away mini-jades and aloe-ettes to friends and neighbors.
Second: travel activity!
I’m taking short trips to Vermont and South Carolina this month, which means new locations for walking, hiking and exploring with friends and family. I’ll visit some of my favorite parks and wild places, and hope to find some new ones, too. Leaving my home routine for a bit is refreshing and energizing for me, and I can use a refresher.
Third: bike riding!
I haven’t been riding at all this spring, so I’m more than ready to ride my road bike and e-bike starting this week. The flowers and trees are so colorful and green and happy, and I’ve missed being outside on two wheels.
Fourth: new routine of activity!
I really liked Sam’s recent post about summer and routine, talking about the weekly fun activities she was planning (of which there’s an impressive variety). I want my summer routine to include the following:
fun cycling with friends and on my own
bike commuting around town to appointments and for errands
biking to church (at least a few times…)
swimming starting in June (or when the lakes warm up a bit more)
Canada in August to Lake Huron with Norah, and also to see Sam and Sarah, and other bloggers and friends
Fifth: Reading and making and writing!
I love reading, both fiction and non-fiction, and I have a prodigious number of books awaiting my inspection. Also, I enjoy making cards and other craft activities, both on my own and with crafty friends. And I am looking forward to some weekly time for writing– I have a few projects in the works.
What about you, dear readers? What do you have in mind or on paper for the upcoming month?
I bought my first road bike today. It’s shiny, light, and a little bit intimidating. I’m entering my second year of riding in a cycling club, and now I have the kind of bike that many road cyclists have.
I am working through the difference between doing cycling and being a cyclist, and what it means to step toward something before I feel entirely ready.
For example, clip-in pedals. Everyone has an opinion on them. I am already preparing to face today the well-intended male employee fitting me on my new bike who has already twice insisted—insisted—on clip-ins.
But I’m nervous about them. Two cyclists were hit by cars in my area of recently. Every time I roll to the edge of the road, there’s a flicker of fear. It’s not just about falling in traffic but feeling unseen, or worse…seen but then dismissed by drivers.
Riding a bike means having to take up road space in my city. However, I was encouraged by an awesome documentary, Breakaway Femmes (2025), which retrospectively reveals the space women had to take up to be part of the male-dominated Tour de France race during the late 80s. That film showed how cycling is about taking risks for the sport one loves. It’s about choosing to move forward, even when standing still would feel safer.
So today I am moving forward on a version of myself I’ve been imagining for a while now. And first space I must claim for myself as a cyclist is the one in my own head. So here I go.
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
Christine
I love a good quote so I have all kinds of them written on bits of paper and in my notebooks but here are two of my absolute faves
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” Amelia Earhart
I love this because I have some much trouble in prioritizing and I’m starting my tasks but I am very persistent so this quote feels like it honours my challenges while recognizing my strengths. I know she didn’t mean it the way I am using it but I find it helpful all the same.
And my most repeated quote was something author Ursula Vernon tweeted to me when I jokingly mentioned in a tweet that I was invoking her and two of my other favourite authors to help me get my writing done one evening.
“When it’s over, the words that you dragged out one at a time in tedium read exactly the same as the ones made of white hot inspiration.”
I really love the reminder that writing (and any other endeavour) is not just about being brilliant and inspired, it’s also about continuing to plug away it it until it is done. The fact that things are hard or boring is not a sign that something is wrong, those feelings are just part of the process.
Natalie
In college, 1993, I read the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. “Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum”
Don’t let the bastards get you down. And U2 had released a song, Acrobat that has the lyric “so don’t let the bastards grind you down.”
Shockingly relevant my entire adult life!
Nicole
I have a few:
There but for the grace of (Goddess/luck) go I.
All we have is now.
“You can spit on freedom but you don’t know what it’s like not to have freedom” (not verbatim but Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Elan
“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.” – Edward Everett Hale
Tracy
“Nevertheless she persisted.” I have it tattooed on my arm. It’s less important that Mitch McConnell said it and more important that it was about Elizabeth Warren’s refusal to be silenced or shut down!
Sam
Gloria Steinem: “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.”
“Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.” Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking
Diane
I have always tried to live by my dad’s pithy “life’s tough, chum”. Whenever I was feeling unhappy or whiny about something, that was his message to either figure out a way to accept it gracefully or fight what I thought was wrong.
Cate
“People want to help — just ask them.” Said to me by a guide in Myanmar in 2013 and I have always found it a profound principle for life. Not everyone will help, and often people won’t “help” if you don’t ask them. But when you explicitly say, “this is what I need,” there will almost always be someone who will help. Example: I was on a solo bike trip in Lithuania, I had to walk my loaded bike down a pedestrian underpass that had a tiny ramp in the middle of stairs. The bike picked up momentum and fell over, trapping me underneath. People walked by me at first, but when I raised my hand and said “help” four people immediately stopped. Taking this stance has enabled me to be more comfortable traveling alone, taking risks in my work, and being less shy about asking people for support for our learning project in Uganda.
Martha
Here’s mine:
Peace activist Kay MacPherson used to say “make every meeting a party, and every party a meeting.” It was a good way to look at our lives in a holistic way rather than a fragmented, compartmentalized one. But like all quotes, the meaning only resonates for so long as we evolve and grow.
The summer before the pandemic, I attended a yoga class where I was the only one in attendance. We had an incredible rainstorm throughout the class which was strangely soothing. The yogi always chose a quote to close the class. This time she chose a quote from Yung Pueblo: “I am at my strongest when I am calm.”
I wrote about it for the blog: “I am my strongest when I am calm. As I write this sentence here, I feel the stress of my day leak away. It reminds me I don’t have to be buzzing madly like a bee from one flower to another. I can pick a moment, or a pose, and lean into it, think about what’s happening, and noticing the little changes that emerge or arise the longer I hold the pose.
Those eight little words are profound. It’s made me think again about what strength means. For me it’s been about asking for help, stepping back, pausing to breathe, feeling the moment, accepting a change in plans, approach, direction. These days, it has also meant I rest with an idea to see what happens, to understand what emerges from the stillness, and to feel the surety that comes from embracing the balance that comes from both the push and the pull.”
I’m not against all things beauty enhancing. Obviously.
I try very hard to be a You Do You person. Things that bring you joy, bring you joy. They don’t have to affect me.
I don’t abstain entirely from beauty rituals myself. I still get colour highlights to brighten up my gray hair. I look forward to the day when it’s bright and white like my mother’s. For now, I’m brightening it at the salon every couple of months.
But something about cosmetic surgery makes me queasy, aside from the obvious– needles in one’s face. I don’t like how the widespread use of it literally erases women’s aging. It also makes it harder to opt out.
I’m a hardcore resister in this area. I don’t have a facial routine. I wash my face, yes, and I use moisturizer and sunscreen, but that’s it. I barely wear makeup. I have younger women friends. They are going all in on this stuff. They seem to be starting earlier and earlier. It seems harder to resist the next thing once you do one thing. I think going to a place to get Botox means you’re likely to be upsold on the next thing. Also once you fix one thing, other areas of deficiency are more noticeable. I think it’s easier to resist the lot of it, than the next step once you’ve started.
Anyway, anyway,. It’s complicated, I know. Mostly I don’t think much about my aging face. I saw a dermatologist a few years ago about spots on my face. She was thrilled to announce that they’re not cancer. I just seem to be good at growing age spots. Okay fine.
Why am I even writing about this?
My walk home in Toronto on research leave makes it harder to ignore. I love that with my new knees I can walk miles and miles. I love walking in big cities, but the downside of urban walking through our gentrifying neighbourhood?
So much storefront normative femininity. So many studios all devoted to producing and maintaining certain kinds of feminine bodies. Waxing, fillers, nails, extensions, blow outs, eyebrow bars….it feels endless. And then there’s the pilates and yoga and spin studios.
And yes the Botox ads.
Keep your resting bitch face looking pretty….get Botox!
Diamonds were once a girl’s best friend. Then BOTOX happened.
