Fools for Hiking, Fools for Love
Reading Gail Storey's new book I Promise Not to Suffer , brought to mind a book I once became fascinated with when I lived in Wyoming - Seven Half-Miles from Home by Wyoming artist and naturalist Mary Back. Suffering from circulation problems bad enough to kill her, Mary was eventually unable to walk more than one mile. Determined not to stay inside, she plotted out seven half-mile trails radiating out from her house, one path for each day of the week. Every morning before breakfast, she took a different route—out half a mile, back half a mile. "Each walk brings her home through another world—the world of the living river, the boggy meadows and swamps, the fence rows, the thickets, the forests, her human neighbors yards and gardens, and the desert. All these worlds form a great circle—the circle rotates around Mary and she around it.” (From Crossing Wyoming by David Romtvedt.) I love the intimacy of Mary’s paths, how each led her home—but I also love