It’s cold this morning by Texas standards. The temperature is in the 40s. The sky is clear and there’s hardly a breeze. I remember the days when I’d go to work in this weather, outside. You just dealt with it. Then my work went inside, but you still had the cold. You only had to fight it on the way in to work or if you went out to lunch, and in downtown Houston, you could avoid it altogether by walking in the tunnels. So, cold was never really a factor, just a slight inconvenience or a chance to wear a new sweater.

I wonder what that does to our bodies, never being really affected by the extremes of weather on a daily basis. Although, we still recreate outside in the weather so maybe that’s an acceptable substitute. But it’s hardly ever for eight hours or whatever time it takes to get that outside job done and it’s seldom on a daily basis. Nope. We’re used to AC and heat on demand and avoiding the extremes of weather whenever we can. And staying out of the sun, because of what it does to our skin.

And with that I think I might take a long walk today just to stretch my legs and get out in the sun and feel the breeze and the sun on my skin. Because in the end, it’s just us and nature and we’re in it whether we like it or not. And it’s good to be reminded from whence we came, walking on the savannas out of Africa into Europe and all the places we’ve been since. And at least now I don’t need to pack my belongings on my back except for fun, and we might have some next week in the mountains of Big Bend where we’ll trod the trails and go back to the comfort of our trailers with AC and heat.

John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver's Tale