The Journey Inward

I woke early this morning and joined Yuri for a hike. The weather was supposed to be rainy, but the day dawned gorgeous! He met me at Moreleta Park, which is only a 10 minute drive from my house. It felt so good to walk through natural areas like I love to do back home. We met so many nice people on the trail and got tips for other great hikes, some local, some not.

My two favorite people were a dad and daughter team. They began hiking together on weekends after Covid. If I had to guess, he was in his 70s and she in her 30s.

Some beautiful sights from the hike…

After the hike, we ate lunch outside at a beautiful old farmhouse under a huge, blooming jacaranda tree. Yuri said it’s good luck if a flower lands on your head. I have about a dozen years of good luck coming my way! It was so relaxing and peaceful to sit under this tree on the beautiful grounds and enjoy a yummy meal and conversation. Yuri told me some stories about the jacaranda, but when he looked them up on his phone, only about half were true!!

After that, I stopped and bought plants at Plant Land! I became a member, which gave me a discount and a free plant! A woman walked with me up and down the outdoor aisles and every time I paused to read something, she would ask how many and load them on a cart she pushed. Plant Land is next to my favorite bar with the live singing and we could hear perfectly as a I shopped. The woman pushed the cart to my car and helped me load. I placed everything in the backyard where I think it will look nice! William comes tomorrow to weed and edge and if he doesn’t get a chance to plant them, I will in the evening. I forgot to take a picture of them loaded into the back of my car!

From there it was back to back Zoom calls with my siblings and then with Pod Squad. I am so appreciative of technology that lets me feel so close to my friends and family and allows us to chat, share stories and keep in touch. J had attended a No Kings protest and filled us in, P gave us DC scoop and K told us how the government shutdown was affecting his embassy in Beirut. Pod Squad had so many South Africa questions!

I also had a nice phone call with Gigi and saw the pups!

Now it’s time for schoolwork and getting ready to head back to work tomorrow!