The temperature outside was 52 when I headed out for a walk along Sligo Creek. That's especially notable since less than a week ago it was 5 degrees. So today was a perhaps brief, but welcome, respite from winter.
As I walked down the street robins in the yards on both sides foraged around and also flew skittishly away from me - keeping one eye on me and the other on the lookout for a bit of food. I've seen these pulses of robins before. During the winter, they come and go with the warm and cold fronts.
After finishing up the January weekend of yoga teacher training and checking off a few tasks, the thing I needed to do was get outside, get some sunshine and fresh air, and see what was going on in the woods and the stream.
In the past week, as it warmed up from the cold, we got quite a bit of rain, so the creek is running dirty and high. As I walked up the trail, I spotted a flat rock in the edge of the water on the other side that was in the sun and looked like a good place to sit for a while.
I went upstream to the next bridge and then came back to find the rock, which was quite a nice perch. It is in a straight stretch of the creek that runs narrow and fast between the banks. Beside me the water poured over a small fall, pulling air under and making foam that circled back in the eddies. The water boiled and rushed around the boulders, intent on its downstream gravity fueled journey, but not having an easy time of it.
Far downstream the water entered a smoother run, and the surface was shiny and calm for a bit before it entered another stretch of rapids, reminding me of the flow of events in life, sometimes busy and tumultuous, sometimes peaceful, but always changing and always pulled toward the ultimate destination.
Sitting by the flowing water is very compelling - being close to the obvious, tangible energy of this flow that continues, day and night, week after month after year. I think watching flowing water is a way to see time. I feel connected to the world, and to my life.
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