Breakthrough with A Neighbor

I had a breakthrough this weekend.  For at least 3 years I’ve been running/walking about my neighborhood and I’ve often passed the same woman in her 50s or 60s.  She’s walking and I’m running, and we make eye contact and smile and occasionally, we wave.   

I notice her because she walks with a severe limp.  I think she’s a stroke survivor.  Her left arm hangs by her side.  Sometimes she clutches it with her opposite hand, and her left leg drags behind her.  She smiles a crooked smile.  The right side of her lip curls up and I see white.  Something in me says she’s insecure, even though her delicate features and petite frame fit her perfectly, and she’s one of the only people to purposefully make contact with me each time we see one another. 

 As I run past her I admire her.  Her walk around the block is probably way more challenging than my trot.  She’s courageous.   She’s joyful.  She’s disciplined. 

So yesterday then, I’m running up behind her and I hear a Word tell me to stop and say hi.  Winded, I come alongside of her and introduce myself. 

I tell her I’ve noticed her for several years, faithfully walking our neighborhood, and that I’ve meant to say hello before now.  I say I admire her discipline and her faithfulness.  Turns out she lives a few streets over, and I tell her my street, and she makes a bubble with her spit while she speaks and nervously wipes it.  I’m huffing and out of breath, but I see a glimmer in her eyes.  Her name is Michelle, and as I run off I think how very easy that was, really.  What was I waiting for?  The next time I see her, I’ll stop again.  And again.  Because even though I know nothing about her, I want to, and was that so very hard?