The possibility to be better in small steps is where I dwell. I think Emily Dickinson expressed it so well in her poem “I dwell in Possibility”.

This year, possibility looks like a pledge to my self to attempt 52 hikes in 52 weeks. That’s 1 per week. I started it alone – the pledge to myself. Then I saw there was a website and so I read on how they defined it.

It was 52 hikes in 52 weeks  – anyway I defined it. Not “hard” hikes or “long” hikes. Not “faraway” hikes or “expert” hikes.

They could be, if I thought that was what I wanted. But I wanted to just make it to 52 times outdoors, doing something somewhat different each time.

A walk on an urban trail, a walk through the neighborhood, a state park or a woodsy one. I tossed in snowshoeing and skiing too. Even the Women’s March.

I wanted the possibility to do more every week. The possibility to TRY without my small fears. So I joined a Meetup (Pacific Northwest Women’s Outdoor Group, my region).

Meetups are where like-minded people agree to do like-minded things. A loose social organization. All it took was my seeing the possibility. And now it has been possible to make new friends and have new experiences together. I hike on my own too but the meetup helps me stay motivated. How to do you fight inertia?

Staying active in winter can be challenging. On those bad weather days, I’d like to pull the blankets over my head instead of doing a stretch routine, yoga or strap on my Yak Trax for a walk in the snow. But I’m refreshed when I do. When I can see the world of possibility.

I’m getting ready for the possibilities in a road trip in the southwest. To see new places and hike them. Certainly, to add to my collection of hikes for my 2019 log and my life.

Next time – we’ll talk more about stretching – my favorite anti-aging remedy.

 

 I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –
 
Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –
 
Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –

by Emily Dickenson
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52197/i-dwell-in-possibility-466