Minneapolis residents are breathing a sigh of relief today as we see blue sky and sunshine after 11 days straight of cloudy skies. With mild temperatures in the 30’s today people, children, and dogs can be seen out and about in the woods and on the lakes, trails and city sidewalks.
Hello Sunshine! Hello Blue Skies!
“Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields…Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.”
―
I went for a hike in the woods at Big Willow Park in Minnetonka this morning. Beautiful days like this relieve some of the cabin fever I feel during our long winters. It feels like such a long time since I was out hiking in the woods. After being sick for a full month, I am thrilled to feel my energy and stamina returning.
There is just enough fresh snow on the trails to make them pristine white. Though there have been lots of hikers along the trails and I see lots of boot tracks there is little ice or mud under foot.
Snow crunched under my boots as I walked and everywhere I looked I marveled at blue skies above and beauty all around me. I met lots of people and dogs out on the trails enjoying the sunshine and blue skies. Often we spoke to one another in passing at the glory of seeing the sun again.
Ducks and crows
At the curve of Minnehaha Creek that goes the railroad tracks and for a little way down the creek where it moves the swiftest, the water was open. There were mallard ducks swimming and browsing for food in the stream. Four crows perched in a tree overlooking the creek and cawed loudly. What a beautiful scene!
“We walked always in beauty, it seemed to me. We walked and looked about, or stood and looked. Sometimes, less often, we would sit down. We did not often speak. The place spoke for us and was a kind of speech. We spoke to each other in the things we saw.”
― Jayber Crow
Escaping Woes
Last night I woke during the night and somehow could not stop thinking about the senate’s vote to not allow the calling of witnesses in the impeachment trial. It makes me sad beyond belief to see the cowardice and cynical lack of regard for the truth in our elected officials. What a farce! Too many republican senators are far more worried about getting re-elected or towing the party line than in doing what is best for our country.
When polls show that over 75% of the people in our country would like to hear from witnesses, their vote shows the disdain the republicans in the senate feel for the will of the people. I guess I didn’t expect a different result than what happened. But I must have held onto a sliver of hope that a handful of republican senators might be honorable and open to hearing the truth. My prayer is that we can find a way to move from oligarchical money-controlled governance to a government that truly represents all of the people with honor and courage.
So along with needing to say, “Hello Sunshine,” I went to the woods today to escape my dark thoughts and sadness and maybe “float a little above this difficult world.”
“Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled—
to cast aside the weight of factsand maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.”
―
How do you escape dark thoughts and sadness? Does being in nature heal you like it heals me? When was the last time you took a hike in the woods?
May you walk in beauty.
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