Why I'm Watching My Step

     If I walk ten thousand steps each day, I’ll be healthier, right? But this won’t be the magic bullet. It also matters where and how I tread.
     I learned this from novelist Lorna Landvik. In Patty Jane’s House of Curl, one of her characters warns that life can be like a ballroom dance or it can be like walking through a barnyard. Either way, you have to watch your step.
     That’s true for me. Sometimes life is as graceful as a ballroom dance. So smooth I get caught up in myself and trip and land on someone’s toes. “Ouch,” for both of us.
     Other times, barnyards happen, and I’m dodging life’s manure. Then I need to be mindful that I don’t slip and fall face first into the stuff.
     So as I move into the new year, I want to not only increase my number of strides, but also to watch my step. That the best way to enjoy the dancing while dodging the dung.
​     And when I take missteps, I'll tell others - and myself - that I’m sorry.
     Because I'll still make mistooks . . . I mean mistakes.