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Runner-up to my daily walk photo. This one is probably sweeter, but I know I won't always have the chance to hold up a bright amur maple leaf up to the camera! I think I've been very lucky this autumn to have these bright colors a part of my landscape for so long--the first ones appeared at Bread Loaf in Vermont, and I've been getting glimpses ever since.

I find this mindful walking is tipping into other aspects of my physical and mental health: I'm learning to not push myself so hard with needless extras, and those limitations on intake also are relating to consumption: as of yesterday morning, I no longer eat red meat, I am indeed considering returning to vegetarianism (I had been for about seven or eight years, but the last three or so, I have been eating meat, which was essentially a reaction to Ryan's treatment of leftovers and me being my father's daughter, the leftover machine), and I am reaffirming my relationship to being alcohol-free, which is necessitated by the drug regimen I am on to regulate my PCOS. Ryan is joining me on a very moderate exercise schedule, which includes embarrassment as he whips past me in push-ups and sit-ups and runs circles around me in the park. Somehow, I still don't want to push him away; it's important to me that he does as I do, even if I am snail's-pace slower. His company is always so good for me.

I hope to knead in other healthful changes as well: being more conscious of water-intake, working in plenty more fresh fruits and vegetables, switching to more organic choices, and I'd like to stop talking about it and do it--start a beginning yoga class. There's one I'm eying that starts next month, but it's on Thursday mornings, which happen to also already be my meeting time for independent study, a primary obligation. Oh, the art of balancing--our internal and external lives--oh, fresh air and sunshine.