The Day I Gave My Hat Away: Not a Grand Gesture But the Right One

There’s gold glitter on the sun tattoo, can you see it?

It’s been hot. The kind of heat that makes you plan every step like what to wear, what to carry, when to move.

I’d pulled one of my wide-brim hats back out again after a long stretch. Wore it. Washed it. Wore it again. And then today, it left me.

We didn’t plan to stop.

But there she was , a woman with two senior animals trying to stay alive in the same heat we were trying to walk through asking for support.

We came back around with the car because I had cat kibble, something I started packing because I have seen more and more unhoused people caring for pets.

She was happy to see us.

And the hat, my trail cap, my movement cap, it went with her too. I wasn’t sure she’d take it. But I couldn’t imagine leaving her there without something. It was too hot and she needed more shade than I did. It’s not that I have so much to give, it’s that I’m humbled by her acceptance of it. It’s not much, but its in the spirit of shelter that I gave it to her.

Sin Límites doesn’t mean giving only when it’s easy. It means showing up even when you’re in your own slow season.

I’m self employed. Work is light right now. Things feel uncertain. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have something to give.

And maybe that cap will cover her head the way it’s covered mine, through movement, through reflection, through the heat of days you don’t expect. But also through happiness and frolicking and the mindset of motion.

I didn’t give it to be noble or because I had more. and it wasn’t because she had less. In fact, with her senior pets, I felt she had so much more and it felt right. And that’s the real weight of movement, when you help push the wheel, it turns it around for everyone. Maybe one small step at a time, but still a step ahead none the less.