Walking in Sunshine

I've been walking more lately.  Riding the bike at rush hour with a kiddo on the back is stressful whereas walking is quite the opposite.  Admittedly it takes longer but I have more time between getting off the bus downtown and when I need to be at Alexa's school which is across the river and up 16 blocks.  It's only 2 miles so I can be quite leisurely with it.  Today she went to her father's and I still walked, in the sunshine!!  I forgot how much I love walking (and sunshine).

It would be hard to to plan, but if you're ever in Portland on the first sunny day after about 30 days of rain you're in for quite a show.  Just take a stroll in South East for the most interesting people watching you'll ever experience.  Everyone is happy.  Young girls with glowing white skin will skip around like their only eight, giggling as if they just spied a grasshopper in tall grass.  As we shed our layers of fleece and fuzz, the newly adorned winters artwork from the local tattoo artists shine in techno color.  The food carts become social centers for all the cool hipsters, freaks, geeks and hippies.  The crazy bikes parade down the street, taller than the Humvees and wayyyyy cooler.  Even our homeless are smiling and gregarious.  I stopped and chatted with Ron, a heavy set disabled man.  I asked him if he had been responsible for the sun's appearance today.  He laughed and said he was going to ask me the same thing.  We talked about Obama (a sign he carried asking how we liked Bush dark - Obomba ), our government, the empty houses and all the evils of capitalism.  I asked if he had enough for dinner that night, he said he could use a little more so I dug out my last three bucks.  I told him it was the least I could do for the guy who could get the sun to come out.  We waved farewell as if we were great pals, both happier for the interaction with our fellow human. 

There is so much wrong in the world and yet there are these special days filled with moments fleeting yet somehow frozen in time where everything becomes crisp, clear and perfect.  The world fills me up with its beauty providing this brief glimpse of how it could be if only we would let it.  May I learn to see every day as if it is the first break of sun after a long darkness.