"You have a lot of energy!"

My hiking trail often brings unique greetings and conversations from fellow hikers. I seemed to have a special spring in my steps on the long journey up the stairs this morning. Then I felt the presence of another hiker on my heels and used that to stay motivated as I kept climbing. I kept ahead of him the first half of the journey, but then thought it was time to let him pass. I stepped aside and he gave me a friendly smile, and said, “You have a lot of energy! You are doing a great job!” I smiled in response and took that as sweet encouragement. Then he continued with, “I can see that you really want to lose weight. And you need to lose weight.” I just smiled and nodded. I felt that “how dare he say that” feeling welling up inside me, but then just decided to laugh and use it as fuel to keep going! Aiyo! Later on the trail I met one of my old and faithful students named Tom. He stopped me and we had the little English tutorial we often have when we meet. Today’s question was, “What is the difference between ‘park in the driveway’ and ‘drive on the parkway’?” Fun to explain that with the sunshine, a cool breeze blowing and the canopy of trees rustling around us! I love how little classrooms emerge from so many different settings. My hike continued with nods and greetings about. It must have been ‘hike barefoot’ day on the trail today. I saw about six hikers without shoes. I guess I didn’t get the memo. Even if I did, that wouldn’t have swayed me from wearing my new electric blue metallic hue Brooks runners. And so I share a few hiking glimpses in this post :)