A Year by the River
July 2025
It is the very beginning of October, and I am sitting at my desk in a cozy Hudson Valley Dwellers sweatshirt. It is a gorgeous day out here in Tuckahoe, New York, but my 100+ year old home is holding a brisk chill of 63 degrees. Yikes - it's too soon to put heat up!! July seems so long ago as I write this, and it all seems so hazy now. What I didn't realize then was that my visit to the Bronx River on July 12, pictured below, would be the last time I'd be able to go walking again for over a month!
Not long after this trip to the river, I re-injured my knee. By the end of July, I was in so much pain and deeply frustrated to find myself slowed down yet again by another physical setback, the first being a story for another day. Long story short, I had a torn medial meniscus, and after lots of rest and a month of physical therapy, I was able begin getting back to my Year by the River project at the end of August.
What I’ve learned this summer—or maybe what I’m still learning, since the lesson keeps showing up time and again in my life, is this: you can set goals, make plans, dream up all kinds of possibilities… but shit happens. And when things don’t unfold the way you imagined, it’s hard not to sink into disappointment and (that also includes self-loathing for me) . Learning to accept what is takes patience and practice. But at the end of the day, the best we can do is process what happened, and then pivot when it is time.