Just Sweat and Enjoy the Small Stuff
I walked through the woods for 5 hours yesterday. Using my hiking guide to wave away heat, bugs, spiderwebs that wanted to stick to my sweaty skin. Mt. Magazine—the highest point in Arkansas at 2,753 feet—on a hazy day wasn’t stunning, spectacular, or breath-grabbing. But, what it was, is pleasant. A very pleasant chance to “just sweat and enjoy the small stuff.” So I walked for 5 hours through the woods. I took 97 pictures, most of purple flowers and butterflies that colored the forest floor of Mossback Ridge. I stepped through thoughts about now about then about later, then left them behind. I made regular cursory checks for ticks as I somehow had a belief that they were a condition for hiking here. (My thoughts included how to remove it if I did find one: do you really have to burn it out like insisted when my cousin had one lodged on her rear cheek, or can you just “make it drunk” like my Elementary School principal did when we found one on my 4th grade leg.) I remembered, well, the only memory I have of our family vacation in Arkansas when I was 8—sitting in the campsite with my sister, holding our hands over our faces to keep bugs from flying into our noses and mouths when we breathed. I remembered this less than 20 paces into my hike when I noticed my grey musical orbit. I turned back to the car for my one and only Off! wipe and then restarted with a superhero protection bubble (which lasted another 20 paces until the sweat dissolved it).
I thought about my patients. Maybe partly because only for them would this hike truly qualify as “Moderate to Strenuous.” But also because they are the stunning and spectacular parts of being here. I didn’t actually come to Arkansas for the outdoor life (especially since “97, feels like 100” isn’t my preferred temperature). I came strictly for money. But, since the two nickels I played at the casino didn’t pan out, and my paychecks so far have gone in different directions from my bank account, maybe I’d better shift my attention to other reasons for being here. Learning how to live with less, much less. Continuing education that being the most unusual thing around isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Learning how to cook for a potluck (cheese, ground meat, deep fried, ideally all of the above). And learning a whole new language.
Quotes of the week:
“I cain’t forgit to wash ma straddle!” (said by a patient in the shower)
“There ain’t enough room in here to cuss a cat!” (unstated but understood: “…without getting a mouthful of hair”)
“Why, you’re as handy as a pocket on ma shirt!”
“I’m gonna make like a baby and git out of this mother!” (said by exiting coworker)
Tags: Arkansas, Ft. Smith, hiking, Mt. Magazine, slang, US of A
bimpy_ak
So “I’ve got a fever in my liters” isn’t an Arkansas saying? Must just be a Georgian thing. ; )
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