According to Mark Nepo, “More than anything, fear blinds, and only by stepping without hesitation into the next inch of the unknown can we build confidence in the life we are about to live.”

     Had I listened to my fears I wouldn’t have ventured walking around our condo without a cane a month after my mild stroke.

     At first I hesitated; I calculated. I rehearsed which pieces of furniture to hold on to. I even counted the steps from the bedroom to the bathroom. I pictured in my mind how a normal person would walk. Was it heel, toe first? Or was it toes and then heels?

     When I finally dared I forgot completely about the counting and the style of steppings. It was a liberation, not to think at all.