I Admit It
Sometimes I don’t understand, or
(and it’s not the same thing)
I misunderstand, hoping
somehow to be brought
to correction and truth,
by way of clarification,
minus animosity.
Like one day
writing to prompts.
A young lady made clear
her (pre-pandemic) intention
to complete
the several months long hike
of the Appalachian Trail,
Georgia to Maine.
Starting in February,
finishing in May (unlikely),
by hiking
twenty-seven miles
every day for months.
She had done eighteen miles in one day,
no more; none
during March or July
on a rocky or muddy ascending trail.
I wanted to say,
that’s a marathon a day,
every day, for at least three months
(more like five to seven)
bearing a pack, food, and water.
But I didn’t. Is it for me to say?
Lest I dash her dream with reality.
Is it for each person to discover
our dreams? To defeat challenging demons?
Not with wisdom but with grit.
Each of us must, on life’s long wander,
one day, one step at a time, take the risk.
Look both ways on every trail.
Watch where you step and mind the gaps lest you find a limp.
Follow your dreams.
Wisely.
Our Literary Journey 
Love this! In this world where suddenly, everyone knows everything about what you are doing AND they assume they know better … it grows tiresome to be told, “You can’t do that!” Or, “You are doing it wrong!” (Although I’ve been doing it just fine for the last 50 of my 63 years.) The worst so far was being told I’d never be a writer, that was a foolish girls pipe dream. How wrong those people were! So, thank you for holding back your thoughts because she will either figure it out for herself – or she won’t. Either way, she will learn and experience it for herself. But as a side note – she really should not be hiking the trail alone. 😳
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Thanks, Gypsie. It is a fine line between giving good advice and being negative. There is a lot of info available to her and I hope she finds it. 🙂
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Most assuredly. I hope she does her research first!
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I hope so too.
It can be done, and it is done every year (but not like that).
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Her body will soon educate her!
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It is a noble goal, but why learn the hard way? 🙂
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Advice, sometimes, just refuses to be accepted.
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I have not seen her in a long time. If I do, I shall ask.
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Sometimes the goal we create for ourselves are beyond our capabilities. Only one way to find out, though. Kudos to her for at least trying. And to you for remaining mum.
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I agree, Dale.
The educational resources are available to everyone. As you know, I have experience with 26.2 mile hikes (marathons), blisters galore, lost toenails, the pain, and how it all works.
As valuable as math is, biology is important too. I was respecting her enthusiasm, not what I hoped she would learn. 🙂
I hope she did or does it successfully.
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Yes, ans I’m still very impressed. I can’t even run for longer than 3 minutes! (So far.)
Biology is muy importante. And yes, respect the enthusiasm!
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My marathon training and race routine was to run four minutes then walk one (except uphill which I usually walked and downhill where I always ran).
I learned that many fundraising groups used the same method. I often passed faster runners because they were spent. Thus, I ran about 21 miles and walked about 5. Exceptions were 4 marathons in the The Chihuahuan Desert where I walked all of it (about 9 hours).
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That gives me great comfort to know that!
And how wonderful that you accomplished that.
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🙂 Alas, no more. It was fun at the time.
I think your getting out for runs and photo ops is great. Good stuff, Dale.
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Alas…
I think I do it just to say I can. I am not in love with it!! But hey…
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Valid. Because we can. 🙂
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