Mon 5/4/09

A Daily Walk With DietPower

Walking is the best exercise for weight loss. And the things you see!

Walking up Kilian Drive today, I found a gorgeous garland of Bleeding Hearts next to a neighbor's shiny wet driveway.

I never see these oddball flowers (Dicentra spectabilis) without thinking of Kenneth Crosser, a high-school civics teacher and Boy Scout leader who lived next door when I was a child. Kenny (everyone, even kids, called him Kenny) had a remarkable talent for surprise. He looked beneath the surface of things. He knew secrets about animals, plants, rocks, fire, butterflies, Presidents, bicycles, planets—the universe.

"What do you see here?" Kenny asked me, plucking a Bleeding Heart from his garden one morning when I was six. "A flower?"

I nodded.

"Things are not always what they seem," he replied. "Hold out your hand."

As I stretched forth a grimy palm, Kenny began pulling the flower apart and laying the pieces side-by-side. "Here you have twin rabbits," he said, starting with the matching pink shells. "And here's a pair of slippers...three pairs of earrings...a baseball bat...and a ball!"

Over the many years since that day, I've shown Kenny's Secret to dozens of children, including my own. It never fails to delight.

I tried it again today when I got home from my walk. If you look at the pieces below, you'll see that Kenny was absolutely right.

About this page: Precisely at noon each day, I step out of my office for a 3.5-mile walk around my Connecticut neighborhood. I carry a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TX5 pocket camera with a Leica 10x optical zoom lens. My object is to make an interesting photograph of at least one thing that is different that day. I post the results here, hoping they will inspire you and your friends to walk, too.  —Terry Dunkle, DietPower founder and CEO.

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All My Yesterdays

Sunday, May 3: Monument to an Afternoon

Saturday, May 2: Gasoline Rainbow

Friday, May 1: The Duck and the Bashful Maiden

Thursday, April 30: A Poison Ivy Sandwich

Wednesday, April 29: The Very Picture of Spring

Tuesday, April 28: A Busy Bumblebee

Monday, April 27: Electric Pink

Sunday, April 26: Saturday Night Special

Saturday, April 25: An Old Oak Falls

Friday, April 24: How an Ant Sees a Daffodil

Thursday, April 23: The Nameless Brook

Wednesday, April 22: Weeding Time

Tuesday, April 21: Wet Apple Buds

Monday, April 20: Mr. Allen and the Crew Team

Sunday, April 19: Bloodroot II

Saturday, April 18: Green Jellybeans

Friday, April 17: Bloodroot

Thursday, April 16: Skunk Cabbage III

Wednesday, April 15: Find the Critter

Tuesday, April 14: Blessing of the Animals

Monday, April 13: The Crow Who Said "Wow!"

Sunday, April 12: A Quirky Church

Saturday, April 11: Self-Portrait in a Pothole

Friday, April 10: Easter flowers

Thursday, April 9: Dumb as a Squirrel

Wednesday, April 8: April Snow

Tuesday, April 7: Egg Trees, Connecticut Style

Monday, April 6: I Carry My Lunch

Sunday, April 5: A Tree in Spring

Saturday, April 4: Pigs with Drivers Licenses

Friday, April 3: Forsythia

Thursday, April 2: Skunk Cabbage II

Wednesday, April 1: Mystery of the Hanging Shoes

Tuesday, March 31: Downy Woodpecker

Monday, March 30: 300-Year-Old House

Sunday, March 29: The Broken Fence

Saturday, March 28: "You're Such a Delight"

Friday, March 27: Skunk Cabbage

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