Bridge that gap

I've said it before..but this time it's different(I swear!..ha!). I get so caught up daily life, driving here and there picking up kids, dropping off kids, work at the dang mall, the world around me whizzing by in gray blur on most days and I forget that I LIVE here, this is my home(for now). I slip right past it and roll right over it and hardly ever feel the pavement beneath my feet. I want to feel out those paths and press my heels into them. It occurred to me while driving over the Warren Ave. bridge last week that I'd never walked across it...and so, the very next day....I did. I walked today too, on streets I've only seen slivers of. And the next chance I get I'm gonna do it again...Bremerton is not so big. Once upon a time (1995) I was homeless and living under a train bridge by the Rainbow food store in uptown Minneapolis. For months and months I did nothing BUT walk, every day all day long. I walked from uptown to downtown and across the bridge to St. Paul. I walked north to the train yards and to the west bank. I walked until my shoes had holes and I had to shoplift a roll of duct tape to keep them on my feet. I was thin and unhealthy from eating out of trashcans and spending my days on edge and lonely. But I was free, free to move about as I wished, to get up and walk wherever I wanted to go...and I did. My last night in that city I walked all the way around downtown circling the baseball stadium and back up to the shiny glass buildings and then around again to the Greyhound station where I boarded a bus, sat down, and never really got back up again. Since then I've been riding along never really letting my feet hit the ground. I've become heavy and slow, tired and weary....I have no reason to be weary...I have piles of plush pillows under my head at night and with a push of a button heat fills my entire house. I have shoes for all occasions, and none of them have tape on them. My plan for this year is to appreciate all of my hard earned resources and to stop feeling so tired. I will walk on the streets my car glides over and experience things from a new perspective. The air is cold tonight and I plan on standing on the front porch and taking a few deep breaths and filling my lungs with it before I settle into my cozy pajamas and slippers and curl up on the couch in front of the fire and flip on a movie and eat a cookie.