{"id":2500,"date":"2022-01-28T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/?p=2500"},"modified":"2022-01-27T11:35:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T19:35:22","slug":"still-walking-and-writing-after-all-these-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/2022\/01\/28\/still-walking-and-writing-after-all-these-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Still Walking and Writing After All These Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Elephant Table<\/p><\/div>\n

Forty years ago, in 1982, when I sat down to write the first Beaumont book, I thought I was writing a stand-alone book. I had no idea that Avon Books would buy that book as the beginning of a series, and I certainly had no inkling that all these years later I\u2019d be looking forward to the publication of Beaumont # 25, Nothing to Lose.<\/p>\n

A little over six years ago, when I set out to walk 10,000 steps a day, I had no idea that years later, I\u2019d still be doing that as well, but I am. As of Monday of this week, I just passed the 15,000,000 step mark. That amounts to 7,130 miles and a lot of worn-out pairs of Skechers.<\/p>\n

Years ago, at an event in downtown Seattle, a woman mentioned that she got out of bed each morning, put on some clothes, and then went straight to the gym. At that time, I thought she was pretty weird. Now that thought has come back to bite me in the butt, because I\u2019m the same kind of weird.<\/p>\n

Walking 10,000 steps takes at least an hour and a half of my life\u2014every single day. Inside steps take longer than outside steps\u201434 minutes per mile as opposed to 28. There are lots more turns in my inside-steps route than the outside ones on our front driveway.<\/p>\n

In the beginning, I could only walk a thousand steps or so without stopping to rest. Now I can do 7,000 or 8,000 in a row and still come up smiling.<\/p>\n

It has not been easy to write during the pandemic. The lockdown combined with the constant barrage of bad news on all fronts tend to wear down psyches and eat away at creativity. I\u2019ve struggled more with the book I\u2019m writing now than with any other, but I\u2019m still working. Through it all, walking has helped me maintain my sanity. It\u2019s my daily prescription of self-help, and, as my mother, Evie, always used to say, \u201cGod helps those who help themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m 76 going on 77, as opposed to 16 going on 17. I\u2019m well aware that, for one reason or another, walking isn\u2019t a possibility for far too many people my age, and no doubt my walking days are numbered, well, but what I\u2019m encouraging my readers to do today is this: First, turn off the news! Do something on a daily basis that helps your head\u2014something just for you; something that makes you happy. If it\u2019s crocheting or knitting, do that. If it\u2019s painting, do that. If it\u2019s swimming, do that. If it\u2019s reading do that. And if people think you\u2019re weird, so be it.<\/p>\n

My daily stress antidote is walking. There is nothing magic about getting those 10,000 steps. That\u2019s an arbitrary goal\u2014a line in the sand, as it were. In my natural state, I walk less than 2000 steps a day. I know that for sure because, once I get my ten, I usually don\u2019t add on more than another two, I suspect that some of you are like that, as well\u2014in the under-two crew.<\/p>\n

I also understand that many of you may not have access to a step-counting device, but you do have access to a step-counting head. We have a near bathroom and a far bathroom. I always use the far one. Between here and there is an entryway table\u2014the elephant table, we call it. Walking around the elephant table takes fifteen steps, and ten of those add up to 150. And I try to take five trips around the elephant table every time, coming and going. One trip around the chairs in the family room, twice around the kitchen island, down to the elephant table and back amounts to 200 steps, and five of those make a thousand.<\/p>\n

So, count off a few lap locations inside your house, walk around them, and keep track. You don\u2019t have to go to a gym, and you can do it in your PJs. We have a very private lot. Earlier this week, when I got overheated doing inside steps, so I put on a hat, went outside, and finished walking with driveway steps done in my robe.<\/p>\n

When you add a few steps to your usual count, you\u2019ll be doing your body a favor and your head, too.<\/p>\n

And one more thing: Know the score, keep the score, report the score. The score will improve!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forty years ago, in 1982, when I sat down to write the first Beaumont book, I thought I was writing a stand-alone book. I had no idea that Avon Books would buy that book as the beginning of a series, and I certainly had no inkling that all these years later I\u2019d be looking forward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-Ek","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2500"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2506,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2500\/revisions\/2506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}