This trail is framed with dense blackberry thickets on both sides for quite a distance. I walk, smiling, breathing the fragrant summer air, mild and mostly still. The soft breeze barely moves my hair as I walk.
My solitary musings entertain me, and I feel my nerves really relax, any lingering background stress falls away. I get back to the car still too early to set up camp, but content to relax and sip coffee from the vantage point and relative comfort of a picnic table some distance from the parking lot.
It’s a cloudy morning. No view of Mt Hood today. It’s fine, there’s plenty to see and explore and I didn’t come for any particular sight. Some rude asshole parks his incredibly loud diesel pick-up near enough to be a nuisance, as it idles. Vexing, but it isn’t enough to take the shine off the day or moment. I’m just, yet again, puzzled by how cluelessly inconsiderate and entitled people can be.
… I walk to a still more distant picnic table…
The drive to this place was delightful, pointlessly slow and traveling “the long way around” through farm fields and forests. No traffic at all. No hurry. My thoughts seemed insightful and profound, as I drove, but I’ve already forgotten what it was I was thinking about. No matter; there’s plenty of time for thinking. I sit quietly listening to the chirps and squeaks of chipmunks hidden in the brush at the edge of the mown area. A crow lands on the table, at the end furthest from me, and eyes me curiously, approaching close enough to satisfactorily verify that I have no treats to share, before flying off.
… Time passes more slowly, here, now…
What will I do in the next moment? I don’t really know… Probably begin again. lol I’ve still got to set up camp, but that time is not yet now.
Evening Light 