It was fifty degrees and sunny on Saturday. On Sunday it was snowing with some fog. Yesterday we were under a Level One Snow Emergency with a high of about 25 degrees.
Don’t worry. It will be 43 and sunny again tomorrow and rainy and cool again Thursday.
Welcome to Ohio. Our weather will keep you guessing. It’s one of our state’s most charming qualities.
Meanwhile, I think I appreciate the snow more right now because I know there probably won’t be much more this season.
I know plenty of people who aren’t enjoying this at all but I’m thrilled. Besides, if you don’t like the weather right now, maybe you’ll like it better tomorrow!
Back in December I proclaimed that I wanted to hike a lot this winter.
Cue the polar vortex and the weeks of snow and ice on our trails that made it nearly impossible to safely get in the woods.
BUT, it was fifty degrees and sunny on Saturday so we jumped at the chance to get out for a little saunter through the woods. We chose the Moonville Rail Trail for its proximity to home and all around easiness. After all, we hadn’t been out for months!
We even made a new friend. It seemed a little early and chilly for him but he appeared quite satisfied enjoying the day in the sun.
It was a good choice and a beautiful day for fresh air, exercise and some bonding with nature. I came home feeling refreshed and not worn out. I was calmer, rejuvenated and better.
It was a powerful reminder to keep looking up! Happy Monday, friends. Keeping looking up.
PS- The temperature plummeted and the snow returned yesterday so our timing was great!
Some of my favorite travel memories are odd. For example, as we were headed out of Yellowstone we encountered this big boy at the side of the road. We had seen him on the way in, a memorable sight because you don’t often find bison traveling alone. There’s safety in numbers.
We pulled over at a safe-ish distance to snap a couple of photos and admire his beauty when he started to meander down the road. Toward us.
In case you’ve never seen one, they’re about the size of an Elantra.
And as he meandered and we sat there silently hoping he didn’t notice us, he slowly began moving toward the center of the road and then turned his head so that we could see the red of his eye. And we simultaneously, wordlessly, and with urgent certainty knew that we were in the absolute wrong place at the wrong time.
We are fortunate he did not ram the Jeep and send us both flying like rag dolls off the side of a mountain.
Our saving grace was that an older couple in a Buick interrupted the moment and he kept moving.
Holy cow. What a moment. I will be eternally grateful that this situation was resolved without incident. I told my friend later that my favorite trip memory was when the bison didn’t kill us. I said it as a joke but it’s true.
If you go, keep a safe distance from the wildlife and don’t try to pet the fluffy cows.
This is just a three day workweek for me since I had a long weekend out gallivanting. No offense to my job or other aspects of my regular life because I’m grateful for all of it…. but … TGIF.
It’s so easy to get sucked back into everyone else’s troubles, bad work habits, and all the daily annoyances that tug at our brains and demand attention.
For this week, though, I have been working to mentally pull myself away from all of that at least for a moment or two at a time. When my brain starts to latch on to something negative, I take myself back to one particular moment on Saturday night.
After a glorious day of exploring the shores of a fairytale land called Presque Isle State Park, some light book shopping, and sipping milkshakes, we headed back to the beach to witness the sunset.
We left our shoes in the car but took towels and jackets. We took books in place of troubles. We took cold drinks instead of worries.
We staked out a spot on a small peninsula where the waves might trick you into believing you’re at the ocean and not at the Lake Erie shore in Pennsylvania. We dug our toes into the sand and I used my bag as a pillow while reclining to read.
As the sun began to descend, lower and lower against the horizon, the pleasantly warm day began to feel pleasantly cool. I stood to put on a light jacket. That’s when I noticed a large gathering of gulls on the rocks. All faced the western horizon as though they too were excited to see the cotton candy sky, colors so special that they can only be created by the setting sun.
And then, without warning, all those gulls simultaneously took off and left us alone to focus on the sky.
There was a slight breeze and the sand was turning cooler beneath my feet. I shuddered when a young woman waded out into the lake for one last dip in the golden hour.
I wondered aloud about the water temperature but she was happy doing her thing and I was happy doing mine.
And this, my friends, is where I am disappearing to in my brain when too much of the real world tries to crowd in this week.
We all need a happy memory, something with lots of sensory details that we can grab hold of and escape to when the world gets to be too much. I’m grateful for mine and encourage you to dig through your memories for one of your own. If you don’t have one, better go out and make some!
The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity — then we will treat each other with greater respect. Thus is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective.
As I consider my own gratitudes, exhaustion, and seeking ways to soften my own life, I find this concept has been a recurring theme.
The general idea is that a glimmer is something small that sparks joy in your life. We are tallkjng about the truly small things like that first sip of hot chocolate on a fall evening, catching sight of the full moon, or hearing laughter from afar.
Glimmers usually aren’t typically planned although I suppose they could be. They are incredibly good for our mental health because they are small reminders that life isn’t so bad and they help us build emotional resilience.
When you see the good in the world, you assume there is more good beyond what you see. There’s something positive around the next corner.
A glimmer is the opposite of a trigger. While triggers are the small things that irritate us and fire up lots of negativity, sadness and anger, glimmers will calm and soothe. They make us happy. They make us smile. They spark creativity and joy.
This week has not been the best but I have been enjoying some glimmers here and there. One day this week I was waiting my turn at a busy intersection and happened to look over to see a little bird splashing in a mud puddle at the side of the road. That little guy was experiencing pure bliss, splashing, ducking under the water, and spinning around before splashing some more!
That same day, I saw a beautiful rabbit in a neighbor’s yard.
I was on the road for work yesterday and experienced construction and traffic delays in multiple locations. As I headed home, I impulsively drove right past my turn to come home and headed to the Dollar General down the road. Whoever owns the field next to that store has planted it with sunflowers. It’s a glorious display of sunflowers right there along a busy state route.
My pictures are terrible because I didn’t want to trespass and had to aim my phone camera through some brush and the iPhone camera isn’t great. Still, isn’t it lovely to think that someone would plant such a beautiful display of flowers just to give me a glimmer one August day?
Look around you, friends. There are glimmers everywhere. You just have to know how to spot them!
