one step at a time

I have lived in Reston since 1979, but at that time the boys were young, I soon worked full time and life spilled over at the edges. Much later, empty nested but still employed by the library, about five times a week I walked around the lake before breakfast. That jaunt was about 1 1/2 miles and certainly a great boost to mind, body and soul as a start to the day.

But since retirement I have been walking 4 miles faithfully each day - with a few exceptions here and there of course. But suddenly with this investment of time and space it has become abundantly clear to me how beautiful my surroundings are! Now I feel as though I am almost literally consuming the birds, the trees, the sun-laced shadows, the pools, the stone walls, the wooden architecture sprinkled through the parks, the flowering hedges, the splash of day lilies, the lakes, the poised heron, the inscrutable blue sky. I can't believe it was mine all along for the taking!

I hope if I lived elsewhere that I would be dedicated enough to walk on hot sidewalks past belching cars if I had to, but praise all that is holy, I don't need to test that option!

So I say with Gerard Manley Hopkins:

"Glory be to God for dappled things….."

and Reston trails to walk.