Walking

I haven't been walking outside for the last few months, or maybe the last year. I honestly don't remember. i don't mean the once in a while walking around the lake with my mother-in-law. i mean the 2-3 times a week walking in my hilly neighborhood to admire the roses and trees and smell the fresh air of the day. I mean stopping at the ridge to admire Mt. Tamalpias in the west, across the bay. I mean enjoying the rhythm of my limbs swinging in syncopation, stretching and releasing, and the oxygen effortlessly pumping in and out of my lungs. I mean feeling the breeze on my cheeks, and feeling my always cold hands warm up because the blood is pumping pumping coursing through my body, all my limbs, my extremities. I mean the kind of walking that let's my mind wander, and flit like a hummingbird. Oh! Look! There's a hummingbird! And crows wheeling and cawing making fun of the air currents they glide upon. That's the kind of walking I mean.

Local Walking Group Forming: Come Walk with Me

I write, coach and work alone. So, I need companionship to feed my social needs, and as an excuse to get off my duff. How about you?!

So, I've starting a walking group I call "Writers Who Walk."

We meet primarily Monday and Friday mornings, at 9am, at my local Peets' Coffee on Piedmont Ave., Oakland.

Writers Who Walk
Cost: Absolutely no cost to you, unless you count coffee, walking shoes, and your time.
When: Most Mondays and Friday mornings, 9am
Where: Peets' Coffee, Piedmont Ave., Oakland, CA

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Walking route: Piedmont Avenue neighborhood, and thereabouts, for about 30-40 minutes

Can't come every time? No problem! I'll be there!

Why: I work alone most of the time. I found I needed the accountability of a group to get me exercising. I already do yoga and weights at the gym, but nothing replaces the fun of a good walk with interesting companions. So come join me, and find community, fun, and exercise!

Stay in touch by subscribing to the yahoo group here: Group home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/writerswhowalk , send an invite telling me why you'd like to join.

Group email address: writerswhowalk@yahoogroups.com
If you have any questions, feel free to email me from my site, leave a comment on this post, or call me at 510-332-5384.

Who Am I?

Beth Barany, www.bethbarany.com. Fiction and nonfiction author. 

And entrepreneur. Fire starter. Risk taker. 

*Who I help are aspiring authors. I help them get their books done and published.

We all Need a Hero

And she is mine:

Magdalena Lewy Boulet

http://www.flotrack.org/saucony_xc/blogs/12942/3680

Persistent
Hopeful
Honest
Looks at her life in the long fun
An excellent athlete

Commuting as Exercise

Commuting as Exercise

I didn't get my Sunday Lake Merritt walk in, nor my Saturday run with the Janes. Reasons? I wanted to party Friday night, and went to Larry Blakes to hear The Attachments (pretty fun), Or, The Whale (excellent!), and another band, The Hot Toddies, a girl band that sorely disappointed me. (Great lyrics, like "Photosynthesis," but with music and singing that left something to be desired). Thanks KALX for the free tix I won by being the fourth caller. Hence, the need to sleep in Saturday morning, and on into the afternoon. What decadence! So today, Sunday, when I should do my walk around Lake Merritt with Melissa, a good 3.1 miles walk, I blow it off to go to job interview. And walked 25 minutes to BART then another 20 minutes to her house, and 20 minutes back to Berkeley BART, AND 25 minutes back home. Most of that walking was at a fast clip. Nice! A good hour and half walk in tight jeans with a pack on my back. Exercise nonetheless. PS. I won't know if I have the job for another few days.

I'm happy about my exercise today, even though it was in commuting form. I re-realized (is that a word?) that if I want to exercise on my self-employed schedule I absolutely have to do it in the morning, unless I'm committed to an exercise class at the gym, which I'm not right now.

Photos of a tree in Berkeley taken today by me, Beth Barany. Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved
I love the textures in this one. (Below) It's a close-up of the tree from above.