Everything is a gift, in one way or another.  In recent weeks, I’ve been ordered to be alone as much as possible, and I’ve re-discovered how much I love being alone and how much I sometimes need to be alone.

My encounters with lots of dog people on my walks, including a bunch of angry pit bulls, has got me thinking about finding some new places to walk.

In a month or two, the lake will be open for swimming, and I won’t be able to walk there in any case.

It wasn’t the pit bulls that bothered me; we often walk with, and past some very nice ones, it was their owners, who had no sense of controlling their aggressive dogs, and were pulled off their feet by them thanks to cheap and skinny leashes and ignorance.

I’ve learned they’ve already seriously injured one dog and harmed her owner. I’ll still walk there, but not so frequently.

Those dogs are going to hurt somebody else and kill a dog, most likely before the people learn their lesson (for which the dogs always pay). It isn’t the dogs; it’s them.

But I don’t want them to learn the lesson on Zinnia.

I want peace and simplicity on my walks; they are essential to me.

A neighbor who owns 75 acres of beautiful woods and loves to see them used has offered me the use of his land anytime, day or night.

I called him today, and he said he and his wife would love to see their beautiful woods used in this way.

He’s a good friend, and he understood what I need. I can walk long distances, but my angina can be troubling on hills some days. I carry nitroglycerin pills, but have never had to use them.

So Maria and I and Fate and Zinnia went out today and walked this lovely path, well into the deep woods. Perfect for us, and Zinnia and Fate. It’s where I will start walking Zinnia every day.

I love these woods, they are well-tended, tall, and there is a mowed, beautiful, and relatively flat path that goes through them. There is also a stream that Zinnia wasted no team in jumping into.

I walked for two miles there today, there are enough hills for some exercise, but long stretches of flat path, shrouded in tall and beautiful trees. Lots of bear and coyote and other tracks and feces and bones and droppings for a Lab to explore carefully, and often eat.

Maria and I usually walk our dogs separately, she loves long and deep and hilly hikes in her woods, and I like flatter and more open terrain.

Zinnia and Fate walk easily together, so do Zinnia and I. And Maria loves walking with Fate in her woods.

We are both strong-willed and independent, we both need this separation sometimes, and we always value time alone to do our work. Once or twice a week, we all walk together.

This is good for love.

Every day, I pray for this crisis to end, but in the meantime, I will use it to learn to be calm and steady, thoughtful, and empathetic and to renew my long and beautiful acquaintance with solitude.

I can’t control much about the coronavirus, but I can control me, day to day,   It’s not about what outside, it’s about what’s inside. Sometimes, I just need a push, even, or perhaps especially,  a challenging one.