{"id":42057,"date":"2024-08-10T00:01:51","date_gmt":"2024-08-10T07:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=42057"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:17:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T10:17:53","slug":"tending-a-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/tending-a-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"Tending a Friendship — I’m on Her Calendar and She’s on Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tending<\/a>
Tending a friendship — I’m on her calendar, she’s on mine. Which means we’re having yet another glorious day together on the trail. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I\u00a0 pulled on my orange hiking shirt the other day, I realized that I had worn that self-same shirt once a month, give or take, for something like ten years.<\/p>\n

The shirt isn’t good for much. It’s a cotton knit T-shirt, too embarrassingly faded to wear to the mall. Too tight and unyielding for yoga class. Too warm for Zumba.<\/p>\n

A Very Good Shirt<\/strong><\/h5>\n

But it’s a good shirt, a very good shirt, just the thing for a day in the woods with my hiking friend. Its long sleeves keep the sun off my arms. And it’s warm, but not too warm, perfect for the slopes and trails of Mt. Tamalpais<\/a> and Point Reyes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And in the event of an emergency — rattlesnake bite? broken ankle? — I can strip down and wave my orange shirt in the air at the rescue helicopter.<\/p>\n

Once a month for ten years? That adds up to 120 wearings of my trusty orange shirt.<\/p>\n

And if I’ve worn that shirt 120 times, that means I’ve passed 120 days in the woods with my hiking friend.<\/p>\n

Tending a Friendship — With a Calendar<\/strong><\/h5>\n

How did we manage to clock in so many days on the trail together?<\/p>\n

By paying attention to our calendars, that’s how. We did it by setting ourselves a hiking date once a month, without fail, so that I’m on her calendar and she’s on mine.<\/p>\n

We have come to depend on each other, my hiking friend and I. By the time a month has gone by, we are bursting with news, ideas and laments in need of a friendly ear.<\/p>\n

It’s been quite a friendship. You can tell by my shirt.<\/p>\n

More tales from the hiking trail at “What Is Beauty? It’s Seeing the World for the First Time — At Abbott’s Lagoon.”<\/a>\u00a0 And about the hike I didn’t take: “Walk 1000 Miles Around Lake Michigan? She Did It. Now I Don’t Have To.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"tending<\/a>
My hiking friend has claimed a bench for us at the end of the Chimney Rock trail at Point Reyes National Seashore. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"tending<\/a><\/p>\n

Tending a long and deep friendship — we’ve done it by setting a hiking date once a month, without fail, so that I’m on her calendar and she’s on mine.\u00a0 Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14],"tags":[2888,969,34,2141,2889,1908,971],"class_list":["post-42057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","category-widowed","tag-busy","tag-chimney-rock","tag-dont-miss","tag-friendship","tag-hiking-friend","tag-mt-tamalpais","tag-point-reyes-national-seashore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42057"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48716,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42057\/revisions\/48716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}