My Cup Overflows

 

It is summer again.  I’m not going to say it is my favorite season of the year, because to be honest, all the seasons are my favorite.  Every season there seems to come a moment where I suddenly stop and acknowledge the beauty of the moment.  It happened twice in the last 2 weeks.

I have two grandsons who both play baseball.  Twice in the last 2 weeks I drove from Goshen, Ohio to Fayetteville, Ohio to attend their games.  The drive is only about 12 miles, but it takes all back county roads, no stop lights, no shopping malls, no traffic jams…. just quiet back roads through miles of farm fields.

Farm fields are special to me.  Both Mom and Dad were born in to farming families.  My earliest memories were of running through rows of corn, being splattered in the face with milk from a cow’s tit by my grandpa, playing hide n seek with cousins in the farm woods, and on and on.  So, early in summer one of my loves is driving past corn fields, soy bean fields, and wheat fields.  They are beautiful.  And in this part of the country, they flow beyond the horizon. 

Can I say they are my favorite?  Nope, mountains, beaches, forests, farm fields…. all of them are my favorites, just like the seasons. 

When it comes to beaches/oceans it is the same.  My family moved to Florida in 1957, I was 9 years old.  Luckily, we moved on the west coast and even though I am still a terrible swimmer, I loved the Gulf of Mexico.  I have enjoyed the beaches of California, North Carolina, and Maine.  I have sailed on a 32’ sloop through the meeting of the South Pacific and the Philippine Sea, I have stood on the beach overlooking the Bering Strait, watched dolphins play in Pavon Bay, Costa Rica, and gone snorkeling with the Sting Rays of Grand Cayman…. again, can I say it’s my favorite?  Sure, for the moment I’m there.

Then there are the mountains.  Summer, Winter, Spring, Fall I will hang out on a mountain, near a mountain, ski a mountain…. just turn me loose!!  I learned to down hill ski in Ohio.  No, there are no mountains in Ohio, but there are hills excellent for learning how to ski.  Once I had the knack, I headed west; Breckenridge, Snow Mass, Steamboat Springs, Telluride and several others.  If it isn’t Winter, Summer will do.  I had a magical moment many years ago setting up a tent in a field of Columbine in the Colorado Rockies.  My friend, Judy, is a bird nerd…. knows them all.  As we were setting up the tent she whispered, “Listen!”  I stopped and heard it too, although I had no idea what I was hearing.  Hunkering down in the tall Columbine we suddenly saw that we were surrounded by Hummingbirds, thousands of them.  They love Columbine.  

And of course I can’t leave out the majestic Denali.  Having lived in Alaska for a few years I had the opportunity to visit a couple of times.  There were days you could see the mountain from Fairbanks, but it was most impressive if you were lucky enough to see it unclouded inside the national park; then it really was impressive. 

Finally, there are forests.  They may have just a slight edge on the others.  Leave me alone in a forest and let me just wander through.  The quiet, the sereneness, the surprises of chipmunks, or squirrels, following along a stream, following a trail deeper and deeper into the woods.  My favorite was years ago, before Muir Woods became a tourist destination and required reservations to enter, I had the honor of entering on a quiet day, when I essentially had the place to myself!!  It was better than any ancient cathedral on the planet. 

I am so grateful…..my cup overflows.