ONE RED GLOVE

Its message helped me shake the blues

- K. ANNE SMITH

Flipping up the hood of my parka, I took a deep breath be­ fore stepping out into the icy March wind. The day was bleak, the sky a dour gray. Not ideal con­ditions for a stroll, but I needed some air—even if it was freezing.

The past few days I’d been in a bad place—a feeling I couldn’t seem to shake. But I was determined to walk it off. I planned to take my usual route, a five­mile loop around my neighborhood, then back home. But with each step, my thoughts raced.

It all started when I learned that my dear friend’s cancer was back. It had been in remission for two years, and we thought she was cancer­free. She sounded optimistic over the phone, but the news was hard to hear. Now it seemed that it was all I could think about. And the anxiety just kept building.