Leaving Cleveland Park – 6:20pm

Slow steps. 
There is no need to be in a rush when the sun is still shining at 6:20pm and for the first time in ages it is warm. 
Warm. 
Warm enough to toss my cardigan into my purse. 
Warm enough to sweep my hair up in a clip. 
Warm enough to take slow steps through the neighborhood streets with [...]

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Brookside Gardens – 8:00am

Things are going to get easier.
The way the ground gives way to my feet as I walk is a sure clue.
There is a softening that comes with spring.  A delicate painters touch that sweeps across the landscape. 
A wash of warmth. 
Things are going to get easier.
It seems like years that I’ve been waiting for the forsythia [...]

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6:38pm – Hanover Parkway, Reisterstown MD

Driving away from the retreat center I catch a glimpse of the sky in my rearview mirror.  Breathtaking, marbled shades of blue and orange on the horizon as the sun slowly slips away.  How lovely to be driving with the windows rolled down on an early March evening. 
And it dawns on me…
This is the night [...]

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6:41 am – Making Tea

Water starts to bubble from the bottom of the pot slowly making it’s way to a boil as the light of day breaks through morning’s resistance.  My bare feet meet the ridges of the hardwood floors.  My toes sink into the rhythm of dawn.  Largo and pianissimo.  Every movement a dotted whole note. 
Pouring the water over leaves I [...]

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10:00am – Tenlytown Metro Station

He couldn’t be missed with his giant purple pom pom hat.
Maybe he was 2 years old.  Not more than 3.  He was wrapped from head to toe in winter gear.  He was so bundled he waddled as he walked.
The Metro station was crowded for a Sunday morning.  The rush of people seemed to scoop him [...]

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4:11am – Hotel Room Balcony, Sandestin Florida

A lulling swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, from the waves.  Gentle and soothing.  Consitency is their song.  Unpredictable is the water but continual is the tide.   Immutable, the water laps against the shoreline and pacifies the night.  Reaching , the water washes over the sand and pulls everything back in an embrace.  Determined, the water pushes through [...]

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7:24am – 30,000 Ft

Wonder and awe beat anxiety at 30,000 feet.  Looking out the little airplane window I am stunned by the blue of the sky.  Is it cornflower blue?  Periwinkle?  It’s a blue I have never seen before.  Is this what it would be like to be on the inside of a saphire?   And the formation of [...]

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3:30pm – Walking Home From Starbucks

My mind keeps searching for a synonym for darkness. 
Something that captures the breath of dark.  It is a biting, steely, breath that gasps in strangulation.  Something that captures the smell of darkness.  It is the stench of rot.  Something that captures the feel of darkness.  It is the feeling of the lake bottom meeting your feet [...]

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8:05am – T2 To Rockville

My thoughts are far away this morning.
I think they are in France. 
The outskirts of Paris in a forgotten little neighborhood that is still and hushed.  It smells like rosemary and fresh baked baguette.  And when it snows here, the flakes come down in alphabet shapes and dance together to spell things like “ooh la la” [...]

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Shepherd & 16th St. NW – 4:10pm

Broodiness is settling in as the snow turns over to sleet.  Sleet brings a different kind of cold and a different kind of grey.  Charcoal instead of silvery.  All the gathered precipitation on my shoulders makes me feel every bit 6 o’clock.  Done.  Time to be home.  Eventhough my cell phone says it ’s just past [...]

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