Get Out the Map

I'm gonna clear my head; I'm gonna drink the sun

the saddest sight my eyes can see

is that big ball of orange sinking slowly down the trees

sitting in a broken circle while you rest upon my knee

this perfect moment will soon be leaving me...

Indigo Girls: "Get Out the Map"

John was truly inspired when he suggested we ride out on the Hawthorne Trail this morning to see what we could see. February really is my favorite month I think. Year after year I'm amazed by the sunny, blue skies, cool-ish days, the fly-through of robins and sandhill cranes. There's still cold and rain, but, oh, these days seem about perfect to me, how ever many February has to offer us. 

We can pick up the Hawthorne Rail Trail less than a mile from our house - on Depot Road, just south of the GRU Kelley Plant. It's paved all the way and winds through the old, industrial part of town (where the train used to come through) to beautiful Boulware Springs and beyond. We got off our bikes at La Chua trail and walked the mile and a half footpath alongside hundreds of alligators sunning themselves. Our walk was accompanied by the thrumming of leopard frogs so loud at times that we thought it might be the echo of a helicopter flying in the distance. Accompanying that background noise was the warbling of sandhill cranes overhead (such a sweet sound to North Floridians) as they gather to head back north - and the occasional squeak of baby alligators. It's another world out there just a few miles from downtown. 

We get so caught up in all the goings-on in our house, home, and immediate downtown neighborhood, we sometimes forget to wonder at the natural beauty just down the street. Although it's not exactly fasting, we're going to make appreciating some of the hiking and biking trails right outside our door part of our Lenten "discipline."  

Those of you who know us personally, know that my son Ben finished up cancer treatment a couple years ago. This week we had one of those scares post-cancer families and loved ones go through every once in a while. Ben had had some troubling symptoms over the last week or so, and his oncologists felt concerned enough to test him for relapse and some other lesser but still serious issues. Everything came up negative! He rode his bike to the beach this morning in celebration (75 miles, yes). So our happiness and wonder is tied up in that as well. Beautiful. Beautiful.

Comments

[Suna]

Wonderful news about Ben. And I will take as many of those photos as you can come up with.

[Kimberly]

Nice. Very nice. :) I took some "city" friends out to San Felasco this past Sunday, and they were amazed at what they saw there (a tiny creek, a very small pond, tall trees, and baby violets pushing up through the underbrush, which my friends swore must be poisonous until I said I'd eat one to prove them wrong, lol). Imagine if we'd gone to La Chua and seen the alligators, lol. Maybe I'll take them next weekend... :) Love you.

[Kimberly]

Oh, P.S. We really need to catch up soon. I've started volunteering at the Oral History program as a transcriber. So basically I get to listen to people telling their stories and then type them out. I love it! Right now they're going through a lot of North Florida Black history, so there are a lot of stories from local African-Americans over 50 years old. And the stories are amazing. But anyways, your post reminded me of it because yesterday I listened to a story that involved very different memories of what the Hawthorne Trail used to be...