There is a sadness, sure.  I am no longer looking out from under the covers at the forest, hearing the songbirds, watching the sun grace the treetops.  In the middle of a great change, puzzlement, wonder, sadness and the thrill of adventure whirls through the stillness.

I am practiced, however, to thoroughly sit with an apricot under a huge maple tree in a familiar park on a wide scarf and just sit.  Now it is in the basement bedroom of a friend.  For a number of days it will be in a high point of the Cascade Mountains near a walking trail that spans the country, from Canada to Mexico. And I will be celebrating another year living on this astounding planet.

Happy Birthday to me!