Sunday

"Sometimes I have loved the peacefulness of an ordinary Sunday. It is like standing in a newly planted garden after a warm rain. You can feel the silent and invisible life. All it needs from you is that you take care not to trample on it." 

– Marilynn Robinson, Gilead (2004)

Expansive Sky

It was unseasonably warm today so I went for a hike. This time of year the most striking feature of the Midwest is, without a doubt, its expansive sky. 

I like hiking. My mind works better when I'm moving. I like the way I'll fling ideas around, or just listen to the world outside of myself. This hike was a lovely moment, filled with open thinking, surrounded by greenness. 

As I've grown older I'll shut down certain thoughts as impossible or unthinkable. No. No. Can't. Can't. I'll clam up a good idea before it even gets the chance to fully form. 

So I like hiking. It gets me outside of the usual confines. That wide open sky helps me examine how big I can dream something. From that space no idea sounds too terribly silly or overly-remarkable.

Fog Drip

My Morning Run

Winter Swim

We ate dinner early. With daylight cut short and the winter night feeling especially long, we ate dinner early.
Hot lasagne, steaming from the oven.  It was good. 

Then the dishes all rinsed and set, tidily, in the sink. 

Homework done. 

We went swimming.
The pool was heated to perfection.
Practically had the place to ourselves so we splashed around and played more than we swam really.
Laughed and sang in loud voices.
Suddenly the dark night didn't feel so long.
The cold weather didn't feel like it was closing in. 

Tomorrow morning I'll wake up and my skin will still smell of chlorine.

America Recycles Day

75% of Nebraska's landfill waste could have been recycled.
Enough said.

Last Saturday's Hike

Fontenelle Forest - Fall Back

Person You Hide

Thanks, D.