How many, if not all, memories are there waiting for the proper stimulus to bring them forth in a virtual step back in time? The same mind and person lives within this ancient body. Only the constraints of physical deterioration can claim the joy of being a child again, and my steps seek out puddles and broad yellow leaves in my path.
As rain storms slam into the California coast in a much needed deluge, I choose a break in the downpour to get in a walk. This is winter in San Diego. The temperatures are in the fifties and I enjoy being bundled up in a heavier coat. Strolling along wet streets near a flooding creek racing through the canyon where our RV park is situated, I catch a scent of mud and water that brings me back in time to a creek running behind my childhood home. Memories of exploring that watery channel flood my mind, and I smile. Childhood is but a mere whiff away in my mind.
Tree trunks with a texture like grey velvet or mottled marble intrigue me as I walk past. Reaching out, I touch the grey strength of a towering monolith of a tree with branches beginning twenty feet above my head. I marvel at the soft smoothness of its bark. Wrinkles in its bark make my mind contemplate its likeness to shark skin. These sentries seem comforting, as I walk by a row of these trees skirting the boundary of our RV Park.
In the middle of an urban world, the RV Park is sandwiched between an Interstate Highway and a railroad track. The noise from both is endless. Yet here, hummingbirds treat themselves to the nectar they find in the flowers of a bottle brush tree. I walk picking out components of nature to nourish my soul, yearning to be surrounded by the quiet of a remote forest. However there is a lesson nature imparts, if one will listen to its whispers. Nature will find you anywhere in your world. But only if you are willing to open your heart, your eyes and your senses.
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