I was having a period of bad health. I had one operation after another. I was falling1faster than the doctors could put me back together. But I just couldn't bear the operation, the hospital stay, the long recovery and the physical therapy（康复治疗）. I told my doctor I was going to try2else.
I had discovered that walking gave me a little3. So I started walking. The first day, my wife4off our steep Silver Lake hill to a flat street. She got me out of the car, and I walked about two blocks5asking to be taken home. The next day, I walked about four6.
Slowly, feeling a little7every day, I began to walk a mile or more. I even8some hills to my route. I became interested in the network of public stairways around Silver Lake I made a9of it and walked every public staircase in Silver Lake. That went pretty well, so I10onto Echo Park. I was feeling better, so I kept going. The search finally11"Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles' "a book12in the spring of 2010. By then, I had13. I had been walking at least an hour a day for three years. My life 14returned to normal.
In three years of walks, I've met dozens of people who had had 15experiences of rebirth or recovery. One man told me he'd lost 80 pounds walking the secret stairs and was dating for the first time in a decade. One woman told me she had 16knee operation. Another told me she had been 17to start ballroom dancing again.
All I'd18from the walks was relief from pain. What I got was 19, community and a whole new experience of my city. Out of the car, on my feet and moving at walking pace, I20Los Angeles for the first time.
