The Betsey mantra

I just returned from a walk up the hill behind Paul's house. Ellen was doing things with Max, so I went by myself. When I 'm walking alone I use my Betsey mantra. My prayer for Betsey is that she experience healing of her tumor, be given patience for the long road of healing, grow in strength, especially in her left hand and foot, know moments of joy in the midst of everything, and be able to fulfill three goals she has articulated: attend her 35th Wellesley reunion with Katie in early June, go to Florence, Italy with Rob and a UofC group later in the summer, and eventually be able to again run a half-marathon in New Orleans as she did a couple of years ago and loved!

This prayer becomes a mantra of seven words: healing, patience, strength, joy, Wellesley, Florence, marathon, each said  in my mind as I place my left foot on the ground. So the mantra covers 14 steps. I have long counted my paces when I walk, using my fingers as a sort of abacus (right hand counts off tens and left hand counts off hundreds.) In this case, my right hand counts off a full mantra- 14 paces per finger, up the fingers and back again for a total of ten mantras or 140 paces for the right hand. Then the left hand counts off one finger per ten mantras. The round trip up the hill and back is 240 mantras. In distance that works out to about 1.7 miles or so. Spiritually, immeasurable.