When I am very old and very worn out I want one more time to run around the Reservoir. The memories will flicker back to me -- memories of apple and cherry trees in pink bloom, of winter icicles with the track frozen, of fall leaves and summer depth of heat and green and shimmer. The memories of all the friends I’ve walked round and round with or run round and round with -- all those warm blessed days of confiding, of friendships starting or deepening. I’ve walked hand in hand with beaus and then with my husband. My wonderful son has seen fit to occasionally join me on this outing. The memories of meeting each weekday at 8 or 9 and of meeting at 72nd and 5th on weekends at 10 with husbands and teenage children where we laugh and chat and gossip and feel exhilarated to have gotten in 4 miles when we could have stayed in bed. All these memories will energize me and soothe me on that last run around the reservoir.

By Tina