Today I took a 30 minute walk. It might not seem like much but for me, it's a triumph, a pleasure, and an inspiration.

 Monday was my last cardiac rehab class - 12 weeks completed. I "graduated," 25 pounds lost, 5 inches from my waist, and three points lower in BMI (I still have 11 to go, about 50 pounds to a "healthy" status).

Walking around my suburb is great - I never feel afraid as long as it is daylight, and there's always some interesting treat. Today, it was being covered in white (dogwood?) blossoms for a moment as they danced and flew in the breeze.

There is great architecture in Oak Park, from the Frank Lloyd Wright's to the Gunderson bungalows to the hundreds of Victorian painted ladies. One two story brick Queen Anne nearby my condo has oak leaf and acorn sculptures across the roof lines - and on the corners of the building, a skinny squirrel such as you might sight scurrying about the neighborhood, on another, an owl - never heard or seen one in all the time I've lived in the area (omg, it's 50 years).

 On my walk this morning I spied a half hidden eyebrow window I hadn't noticed before, on a kind of dilapitated frame Victorian - this one had once been painted in the glorious bright bold colors that some painted ladies in the 80s (that is, the 1880s) displayed, bold primary and secondary colors such as red and green, yellow and violet, or blue and orange, faded and chipped though it was. Most of the Victorians in Oak Park today are painted in five colors, much more subtle moss greens, soft yellows, beiges, creams, and black.

 I couldn't walk for a half hour for many years, I didn't have the stamina, motivation, desire. But now I'm so happy, happy, happy to be able to walk and get all sweaty and see what there is to be seen.