I walk 3 miles!

This may not sound like climbing Everest, however I haven't done this for more than 20 years, as I've had ME, which prevented exercise. Yesterday, I walked to the nearest pub - a lovely spring walk across the fields. There were sheep, lambs galore, hedges coming into leaf, and ancient ridge and furrow fields; I could imagine being a medieval villein and having a strip of land to plough - bigger than an allotment, but not much. My friend Brian had given me his number and offered to pick me up at the pub if I found it too far to get back, which was great as I relaxed about that.

After an hour's lunch and lounge, I walked back. Into the wind, however a lot of little hills to shelter behind occasionally. Wonderfult to see where I'd come from and in the distance, the church and village buildings that were my destination - I have regained that power of being able to walk across a landscape. Staggered back to my village and jabbered away to Brian about the walk and anything else I could think of, out of relief and excitement.

And that's it! One of my longest goals since having 'ME mark 2' was to get to the pub - I never imagined being able to get back again on my first visit by foot! ME mark 2 involved being nearly housebound and slowly building up walking so I could get to the shop and back (468 steps!) which took me 2 years or so to do regularly, even with rests on the way. I walked with a seatstick, so I could sit down when talking to people (my ME quirk was to only be able to talk when sitting down!). I dreamt of walking over the hills like I used to, and studied maps many times to measure how far I'd need to walk. Then I did the Lightning Process, and got rid of the seatstick! I had to work at the talking bit, and doing more walking, but it was a lot easier. Now I can feel my body responding to being pushed in a healthy way - it gets tired, however it bounces back. Now for the other pub - 3 miles each way!