I hadn’t run a mile since high school. Not all at once, anyway. Then I moved to a new town and started running around in it. This turns out to be a good way to get to know a place. Here there are potato fields, corn fields, soybean fields, and an old cemetery. You can run alongside them, and you can run along the tops of the dikes, and then run down to the river. Here’s what the path along the river looked like before the leaves fell off.

This Sunday, I’ll run a 5k. It’s for a good cause: I’m raising money to support Safe Passage, an organization in Northampton, Massachusetts, that provides support to women and children who have experienced domestic abuse. If you’d like to make a donation, you may do so right here.

Or maybe you’d like a running playlist? I just uploaded a sampling of what I’ve been listening to, and that’s available here.