晨操 Morning Exercise

It was a beautiful spring morning in April when I decided to walk a short distance to meet my husband Tom and our German Shepherd Lucy. The two had already been walking for an hour and I had slept in that morning. The silence of the neighborhood and the fresh air was inviting. I was listening to the birds singing in the trees as I walked along and noticed the road getting steeper and my exercise getting harder.

It was my first time in over two years walking up this hill. I had undergone surgery to replace both my knees and I wanted to see if I could make it up the slope.

At this point, I began to remember another time when I was coming up this same hill. I was pulling my four-year-old grandson TJ on his tricycle. I had tied a rope around the handlebars, and in that way I could help him up the hill because his little legs were not strong enough to peddle. He had wanted to go for a walk and pick blackberries in our favorite spot along that road. At the top of the hill the blackberry bushes grew wild because no one had planted them. In the springtime, there are tiny white blossoms and the fragrance is sweet. We always enjoyed our little walks together with TJ riding on his tricycle while I exercised.