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I rearranged my Idea Board to add some photos that I recently took. This hangs in my kitchen, and sometimes it's nice to have these assorted memories while having my morning cereal or cooking dinner. Family, friends, photos of Vancouver, photos of New York, and other neat little goodies.
Even as I began this post, the sound of the bus' low deep purring passed outside my window, gearing down to pull up at the bus stop. When we moved into our house in West Van, the trains heading to Lillooet and Prince George would pass on the tracks down the hillside below with a high-pitched shrill as the conductor braked rounding the bend. Over time, it faded to background white noise, always there but part of the scenery. So too in my place here in New Jersey, the bus passes constantly, a reminder both of the massive city destination and the small-town retreat in which I have settled. It's a part of the white noise, but occasionally I hear it distinctively. Hello bus.
Emerging from the Metro at Dupont Circle.
Kinetic Sculpture near the Mall.
Air and Space Museum.
My parents arrived earlier this month and we decided to rekindle our weekend B&B roadtrip tradition, this time with DC as our destination. The weather that week was warm and springlike and then, two nights before our departure, the weatherman mentioned a severe storm system heading our way. Sure enough, we awoke on the morning of our trip to snowplows passing outside the window. Undeterred, we monitored the Doppler, saw that it was raining at Philly, and so we hit the road. Slow going along the Turnpike, then rainy all the way to Washington, a nice 4 hour trip, arriving in Dupont Circle just as the coldfront caught up with us, turning the rain into icy shards.
After dropping off our bags in the cozy loft, we set out for a stroll in the rain and ice that lasted all of five minutes before we came across a teahouse. Little white pots of tea are an excellent remedy for shaking off bitter rain.
That night, we enjoyed pizza in Georgetown and hung out with Sarah and the energizer Dachsund Pete. The next two mornings, we woke to clear sunny skies, perfect for strolling through town, wandering to museums, and relaxing at bookstores in Dupont.
March 2007 comes to a close, farewell March 2007.
I have always been fascinated by stories of random coincidences, serendipity, right-place-right-time. Whenever I meet lovely new people who are in satisfying relationships, I enjoy asking them about how they originally met, and inevitably the stories always hinge on some perfect twist, meeting at a party they almost didn't attend, meeting after deciding to take a spontaneous holiday across the ocean... The path of one's life, laid out so clearly, suddenly diverges in that very instant.
What these stories tell me is that we just have to keep embracing every element of life with appreciation and awareness. There is no certainty except for the constancy of these small random moments we encounter everyday, and life is lived in the way we react to these small moments. A lot can happen in a short 4 week span. We can choose to swath ourselves in a protective cocoon of hibernation or we can step out the front door into a world in which snow falls one week and flowers blossom the next. We can allow ourselves to be tugged into the whirlwind or we can hold fast to a foundation built on the true constant parts of life, the love of family and friends. We can question every step through which we have bounced to arrive at where we are, wondering if things could have been any different if we had zigged instead of zagged. Or we can just keep on stepping forward along concrete sidewalks that suddenly appear to be scattered with lucky copper pennies.
Reflected in the globe outside the United Nations.
Strolling in Georgetown, Washington DC.
Midtown Manhattan.
