Last Sunday I had the pleasure of having a dear friend accompany me on my Sunday hike. I love my Sunday strolls very much and it was a pleasure to be able to share it with another person. We met in graduate school three years ago and essentially sometimes it seems went through war together. I finished school last May and she will be done shortly. As we hiked I remembered how totally consumed by school and work I was for so long and how much I missed doing simple things that served no higher goal than bringing myself some peace. I am filled with gratitude for my ability to obtain an education and even more so to be done and to be able to focus on other dreams and passions. 

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."  -John Muir

This picture doesn't even begin to capture how extraordinarily lovely this was. From the previous freeze there were still places frozen over; however there was runoff that was trickling beneath the ice. It was simply breathtaking to look at closely.

You know someone is your friend when you both see the same random shapes in the same random place. You didn't know that a Rorschach test was a part of measuring true friendship did you? Now you do. What do you see in this picture?  

On the walk home I stumbled on to this. I had been feeling a little peeved as I had just picked up a ton of litter and was feeling like the forsaken mother of the neighborhood. As I stood up from taking this picture I saw a sign one of my neighbors had made and placed on their porch- "Faith, Hope, Love for Newton". I felt a lot of positive energy restored. But seriously y'all- litter really bums me out.                                                                           

AND then this- a beautiful can of PBR. Wait- what? This is a shout out to my friends. I asked them to make snowflakes at our Party at the End of the World. They worked so hard to create very unique glittery snowflakes. A lot of beer was consumed, a lot of fun was had, many a snowflake was made and my thankfulness for having kind people in my life was multiplied a million times over.