Nature trail

New York

It’s up early every day, before 8 a.m., and a brisk walk through the park before breakfast on the way to judo practice. A pale green washes the fields, daffodils pushing through the crusty earth. The joggers are out in force, young Jewish princesses struggling while getting in shape for serious Bloomingdale’s shopping in the afternoon. The US Nationals are this weekend and I’ve been behaving myself. I now get hammered only twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. The walk through Central Park is the calm before the storm, the respite before the hell I know I will have to go though on arrival. And that’s when I notice nature the best. The knotty buds unfolding, the sound of robins, the clatter of the hooves of hansom cabs. There is a camaraderie among early risers, like early Christians, I suppose, one I’d never felt before because throughout my life I’ve been a night owl.