Park Walks

Tuesday’s Truth

Over the weekend, I had a chance to take a lovely afternoon stroll around one of the Nati’s beautiful parks. On Sunday the weather was just perfect for a park walk and an almost twenty year catch-up … crisp and cool in the shade, warm and invigorating in the sun.  It was a very real reminder of the beauty that comes with this season.

Much like the conversation I shared on Sunday, the intoxicating and varying temperatures reminded me just how much life is well, cyclical. In Ohio, we’re fortunate enough to have four seasons every year, and sometimes the Nati’s weather changes four times in one day. Because of this, I’ve grown accustomed to associative weather. (I don’t know if that’s a real term or not, but I’m coining it so there.) I am not a summer sort of girl. Sure, I love the sun and the brilliance that early morning runs or late night sunsets offer, but there’s nothing … exhilarating about the season for me. It always feels too full, too complete, robust, and round. But autumn, now here’s a season I can get behind. It tickles at the end and the beginning of so many things – sunny summer, the onset of long winter nights, and my own drive and pull toward my lab for revisions, work, musings and truth tappings.

As I strolled through the park, marveling at the meteorological beauty of this season, I realized that as much as I can appreciate the full circle approach to these days, even more brilliant and beautiful is when random folks pop back into life’s hemisphere … and even if it’s for just a few short hours (as it was on Sunday) or if it’s for a few months (as with the season) true cylindrical appreciation comes from not only recognizing when these moments occur, but pausing for a moment to give thanks.