a walk in the woods

I seem to find heart-shaped things everywhere I go.

Do you ever have those afternoons where you just need to go for a ride?  Get out of the house, get in the car, drive familiar or not-so-familiar roads to see something other than the inside of your apartment or your computer screen?  Me too.  After all, I'm living in my hometown.  I know the roads.  I have favorite places, favorite neighborhoods, favorite outdoor spaces.  So yesterday I went for a drive and wound up at Thacher State Park.  

Growing up, we would go here to swim in the huge pool which had a high dive and was next to basketball courts, playgrounds, and nature trails.  We'd spend the entire day there, sometimes with my aunts and cousins or my mother's friends and their children in tow.  I was that kid who never, ever wanted to get out of the pool.  Unless it was to eat lunch and then go for a walk along the trails in the park.  I might have whined a little before agreeing to it, but I always knew I'd be happy among the trees and lookouts along the wooden fencing.  

It was chilly yesterday, maybe forty degrees.  But I still went for a walk along the escarpment, happy to have the trail to myself and near silence as my companion.