How I changed my Walking Habit

I took one sabbatical and walked parts of the Appalachian trail, another shorter one on the Via de Santiago de Compostela. I had a habit as a walker, a passeante, a flaneur. 100 blocks up Broadway was my ritual for decision making. I got mad at my phone when it told me I walked less week than last week. The pandemic changed me from a destination gal to a process-ional one. I stopped counting steps, stopped my childish back seat wine, “When are we going to get there?” and relaxed, a word not formerly in my vocabulary. I started to trail.