Sunday. Day of rest. Day for watching football on the tube. And, for some of us, a day to hike nine miles around the James River. Here are some bridges for taking photos of the Richmond skyline. Here are some flowers bowing out after a hot, humid summer.
It did not rain. We thought it might and the clouds were with us while we walked. But it was weather you can enjoy without a thought. I brought some rain gear in my pack but it stayed there. The only thing that came out of it was a Cliff bar as we sat and rested a short while at the halfway point.
I enjoyed talking with some of the other hikers. Some of them I have seen a few times now. I’m not the new guy anymore. We walk and talk. We exercise together. We don’t sit at home watching the tube on a Sunday afternoon.
And I took some photos. The Richmond skyline in this light was interesting so I stopped and spent some time with it. I didn’t think about much of anything. We walked over a worn, wooden footbridge and I thought “What if it gives way, today? What if I end up in the riverbed below?” But it was not my time to go.
I was hardly tired at the end of our walk but my clothes were wet with sweat and then the cool air embraced them and then it started to work on my muscles. I thought, “It would be nice to have another shirt now in the trunk of the car”, as we all said good-bye and headed home.
Back here once again, I took a hot shower and muscles sang with pleasure. Soap ran over skinny arms, skinny legs and a stomach that is so far diminished it is difficult to believe, sometimes, that it belongs to me. I dressed in clean, dry clothes and sat down to the computer with a cold beer and some Cape Cod Kettle Cooked Potato Chips. It was now time to watch some football.
And realize I attended a service of sorts today. It was in nature’s cathedral and the peaceful song of the river running around us was precious. It was the song in our veins, our arteries and the glow in our brains. It was happiness. And all the children sang.
Thank you for the trees
And the geese that sing
Thank you for this wondrous
Art. And for so many things.
Autumn soon will find us here
Laughing in the breeze,
And we will know it
In our hearts,
As we remember Spring,
As we remember many things.
Here are the photos I took today.
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