so much walking

There was the slow uncertain kind of walking, that takes you in through the hospital doors and upstairs, leaning away from the cold blue, the old linoleum, the smell of wards, and into ward eleven. And there he is, sitting up already. Whatever the thing was in his intestine is now out, the protruding stomach is back to its slender self and my father seems well. Hospitals. The man opposite tells his lyrical story - of wires and tubes dancing round his body, of how the man in the ward last week shouted call 999, of how if he bends too much one way the tubes will come away. How the next day he says exactly the same and it saddens me. That we humans are so fallible, so strong yet so able to be forgetful, repeat ourselves. We who held down good jobs. We are all going there in our different ways.
Then there is the walking at the treefest - round the grass and under the summer sun. The wafting in and out of the right on tents - nodding towards recycling, build your own tree nest, hippy clothes, tarot cards, mountain bikers leaping over jeeps if leaping if the word for flying on a bike. This walking where my darling nephews are buying nineteen badges. Where my cousin and his children are swinging. Where my sister is buying pale blue nuggeted jewellery and my other sister is enjoying falafel and pita bread. Where Si is dressed up medieval style and carving wooden spoons. Ah, here's the life.
Then the walking through the New Town in Edinburgh. The sort of walking I often did and when i'm down in the city, still try to do; the slow ambling through the elegant streets, the gazing into the opulent rooms, wondering that those lemons are still sitting in that wooden bowl in that basement flat. Then finding my cafe. The classical music, the cappucino, the croissant, the dreaming. And for those few days the sea is far away. When I return north I am surprised and even a little frightened by her strong persistent noise - those waves crashing just yards from our bedroom window. All through the night the waves come in, and go out.
I bless them. All of them. Those people who walk with me, even some of the way, and each in their different ways. And I am blessed in return.