Fireflies

Back in the 'burgh and I'm glad to be home, sometimes the best part of traveling is coming home to the familiar after inserting oneself into another landscape, another context. Visiting the big city can have have a jarring effect on me, building after building, concrete and glass, people as far as the eye can see. I find myself searching out the natural, the respite from it all that make cities function more healthily. Paki and I took a long walk along Lake Michigan, out onto a pier which held only one other human soul and lot of birds. So close to the power of the lake and so close to the pulse of the city it was rejuvenating.

Something has shifted in me, or perhaps more aptly a part of myself has been uncovered and developed. I have always leaned towards the internal and I find that in dedicating so much time to running I have gotten in touch in a deeper way with my natural rhythms and and the rhythm of the world around me, which leads me to crave the quiet contemplativeness of nature rather than the pulse of the crowd, artificial light, human creation.

Yet, I do enjoy the opportunities a city affords, more and more I split the difference and fine ways to get into the natural world close to home. Of course the conflict between the two can lead to some dicey situations (when the geese attack) but for the most part I find contentment in my urban escapism. Last week, returning from a satisfying and long overdo bike ride, I saw a little blink of golden. The sun was retreating, the sky a hazy inky blue, the grass a dark husky green and suddenly bursts of gold were everywhere. Fireflies. And it felt like I was seeing them again for the first time, a reminder of the wonders of summer. All around me people were taking them in with delight, and as I peddled my way back home it reminded me that sometimes it takes a nightfall to let the natural light shine through.