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The<br />
Time<br />
COIN<br />
Camille Anding<br />
“Have you always been a<br />
walker?” the technician asked<br />
as he turned off the treadmill.<br />
Obviously just completing the stress test<br />
and still standing was an accomplishment<br />
for my age.<br />
The question followed me out of the<br />
waiting room and into my vehicle. Always<br />
a walker? Yes, perhaps I have been. I walked<br />
miles of trails through my childhood<br />
homeplace and declared my walk to the<br />
school bus the furthest of any of my friends.<br />
It was a terribly long walk to begin the school<br />
day but a joyful run when I headed home.<br />
Walking down a cotton row that has a<br />
beginning with no end is a perspiring walk.<br />
Add a hoe or a cotton sack and whoa Nelly!<br />
I’m just grateful those walks were shortlived<br />
during my teen years.<br />
I was always a walker on the Ole Miss<br />
campus. My part time job at the infirmary<br />
was at the extreme west end of the campus.<br />
Some of my classes were across the bridge to<br />
the education department on the extreme<br />
east end of the campus. Did I walk? Yes and<br />
with a load of books in my arms. I studied<br />
for part of my degree and walked for the<br />
other part!<br />
One of my most memorable walks<br />
was down the aisle of my home church,<br />
heading to my future spouse standing next<br />
to my pastor. It wasn’t a long walk, but it<br />
was an endless walk of commitment to<br />
our marriage.<br />
Little did I know that my walking was<br />
just beginning. Together we walked colicky<br />
babies and babies that wanted holding<br />
instead of their cribs. We walked to athletic<br />
fields, up bleachers, down bleachers, to<br />
gymnasiums, and to stadiums.<br />
I walked the floor with eyes on the<br />
driveway and ears listening for that<br />
teenager’s car that would slow down on<br />
the highway and turn up the drive. There<br />
were miles of walking down grocery aisles,<br />
through malls on shopping sprees and on<br />
mountain vacation trails.<br />
There were thrilling walks down<br />
hospital corridors to the nursery window<br />
to see brand new grandbabies. Now the<br />
walks follow similar paths of repeat<br />
activities and sports, following the grands.<br />
Walker? Yes, but none of us can<br />
determine how many steps remain in our<br />
walk. That’s why we walkers through life<br />
need to stay on God’s path that’s absolutely<br />
headed in the right direction. l<br />
66 • Fall 2018
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