Sharing the Blog --- Day 58

Walk: Nothing yet but I anticipate R/T Mindful Body for yoga class and R/T Western Addition Library for book group. Distance: 26 blocksand yoga class

That I know of, I have a couple of readers, and I'm about to share my blog with a new friend. Such a simple thing to do yet so fraught.

What I do on these pages is a work in progress. On an on-going basis I write an homage to two things that have 'saved' and enriched my life: walking and San Francisco. My first entry (January 8) tells my reader about my connection with walking and my now spiritual walking companion, Zipper. From the time of Zipper on, walking has been a daily activity. It kept me sane at my unwanted boarding school, and at Connecticut College where my favorite destination was the Arboretum.

Then in New York I walked nearly daily from my apartment on 87th Street through Central Park to the Time/Life Building on 50th and 6th.

I also walked to and from work in Washington, DC - from Georgetown approximately 4 miles to Longworth House Office Building. I have to say that city walk was always the most amazing as virtually all the public buildings, museums and galleries were freely open to the public at that time, so everyday I was able to just stop in at the National Gallery, art galleries, and various embassies. I must have visited Renoir's 'Luncheon of the Boating Party' at the Phillips a hundred times - and never once did it fail to uplift.

There were major hikes and lots of skiing during my years in Sun Valley, but encountering San Francisco was literally transporting. It is a treasure trove for walkers, and I've never stopped diving into that trove nor have I ever - in over 40 years - been bored. This is where the two aspects of my blog intersect - where walking meets San Francisco. Expressing all that I feel - all that the combination of the Bay Area and walking brings to my life - is a lifetime activity. Even the most talented writers couldn't do it in one book - no matter how long. Herb Caen wrote a daily column in and about San Francisco from 1938 until he died in 1997 and his love affair with the city never ended. He famously said that if he got to heaven, "He'd tell God, 'This is nice, but it ain't San Francisco.'"

Really we all feel that way. One of the great joys of living here is sharing the city and Bay Area (Marin, East Bay, Peninsula) with each other. We're always trading comments with friends and strangers: "Can you believe this weather? ..those Giants? ..Joe and Jerry? ..how the bridge looked in the fog this morning?..Hardly Strictly Bluegrass..." Then there are all the innovations in every field; the incredible quality of the people who have been 'called' here. We live in a state of wonder, and, believe me, we know we are blessed to be in a place that suits us so well.

There are many sacrifices: space, expense, constant threat of displacement in this ambitious, gold-rush city, and, of course, earthquakes. So - in spite of our reputation - it isn't layback, peacock feather land out here. It takes work and humility and a bit of insanity probably to stay.

At one point I thought about a book titled "Can I Walk There?" that would tell the reader the distance from my home to a certain scenic or well known place in the Bay Area. Then when I got there, I'd give a longish explanation of that particular destination along with pictures probably. It would be a sort of Frommer's of San Francisco. The more I lived with that concept, the more it wasn't me at all - which is partly why you don't see my book in stores. Even if there weren't any such books available (can you imagine how many there probably are?!), a nuts and bolts, detail-oriented accounting of anything does not call to me. Nor would it capture the soul of living in the Bay Area for one loner.

Yes, loner. That's the third element of the blog. How does a single person live alone in a place thousands of miles from where she grew up and was educated? The answer is: very well. So, this is also a sort of accounting of the 'loner' life that simultaneously updates that term 'loner.' Along with many artististic types I imagine, we loners live in our heads a lot, but there is a huge amount of space in there and much to contemplate, create and explore. And we do have social skills.

So whatever becomes of CanIWalkThere, these are the energies that are at play. The work and courage comes in just letting whatever comes up be expressed - do its little daily thing - and then allowing that be witnessed by myself and whoever else might show up.