Rafting Life's River

Today was spectacular. Rory Conlan and I spent about an hour while we walked, and I managed to pull myself out the calling of walking to make it to my day job.  On the way, I experienced the morning of four suns.

Four Sun Morning - US 98 Causeway - Daphne, AL

We live in extraordinary times. Metal coated flat glass mirrors were not produced until early in the Renaissance in Venice. Due to the difficulty of making plate glass of uniform thickness, they were a very expensive luxury item. There are legends of the Countess de Fiesque purchasing a mirror for the price of a wheat farm she sold to finance the transaction. Today, we have mirrors everywhere. I didn't really notice this till I got out on the trail and started moving a little slower. Now I see them, and what they reflect, everywhere.

Later in the afternoon, I made my way back to Fairhope, AL for another round of trail work, and the day was then bookended with the glory of the universe.

Fellow Travellers - Fairhope, AL

Because of the cloud coverage, I was a little concerned the sunset would be a little dull. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Fishing - Fairhope, AL

People aren't something I normally photograph, but today, down on the end of that pier in Fairhope, the opportunities were just too beautiful to let pass.

Family Sunset - Fairhope, AL

I stood in awe as a raging river of life flowed by as the sun dipped below the horizon. Sometimes...oftentimes it's like that during my pilgrimage training. I raft down the river of life, and the universe brings me just the right things to achieve peace and serenity. I feel like I've discovered an endless river of wealth, and it costs hardly a thing to experience the flow in all it's grandeur. I am blessed, and although I don't know what will happen tomorrow, I have faith that the river of life will deliver just what I need.

Holding Pattern

Occasionally, I find that my life gets into a holding pattern.  I'm doing the daily practice.  I might even be hitting some elements of the practice better than I have at other times during the journey. For whatever reason, during these time, it feels like my progress has stalled.

I haven't been able to correlate these episodes to anything in particular, and I've come to assume that they are really just a normal part of existence. I like to think of them as time when the universe is just consolidating. If I'm fortunate, and I often am, I still find the beauty that I'm seeking in the daily rising and setting of the sun.

Night Shatters - Spanish Fort, AL

When I get into one of these spots, I find it best just to relax a little.  Great experiences sometimes take a little time to put together, and the world is an infinitely complex place. Forcing the issue or trying to get ahead of the way things are meant to be often just leads to frustration. Better to keep pressing on with doing the next right thing and enjoying the ride.

Sol Beats a Retreat - Mobile, AL

I'm a little impatient, but I've seen this movie before. I don't know if the dam will break and things will start happening tomorrow, but I know if I'm lucky the answer will be revealed.  Until then, keep walking.

The Call of the Road

I find myself back on the road again, and though travel takes me away from those things I hold most dear, it does give me the opportunity to get unfettered internet access.  I also find that travel affords the opportunity for adventure, a chance to meet new people, and, almost without exception,  a time to see the world from a slightly different angle.

Travel is a time to reset...a recreation, as it were, even if the time on the road is largely dictated by the constraints of the day job.

I like it.  I like it a lot.

Parking Lot Sunrise - Baltimore Washington International Airport

Today started off early with a trip to the airport. As I was waiting on the shuttle from the long term parking lot, the sun peeked up over the horizon and, as seen through the chain link fence, offered a pretty striking vista to start the day.  

I got in the aluminum tube, and a little less than twelve hours later, I was blessed with experiencing the sunset in Fairhope, Alabama during my evening training walk for the N2N-TCP.  

Heron at Sunset - Fairhope, AL

There were moments of terminal terror as I hustled to make a connection and a day job email or two in between, but the bookmarks on each end of the day seemed to make it all worthwhile.

Fairhope's On Fire

As I told Rory (Conlan) during the walk, "We really should be doing this sort of thing full time."

Soon.  Very soon.

I'm not sure what tomorrow holds, but I sure hope it's more of the same sorts of experience.  I'm optimistic.