Yesterday my husband, Brad, and I were on a hike that crossed many streams and rivers. At one of the many pauses at a bridge overlooking the river, I noticed the shadows of waterbugs on the bottom of the water at the edge of the river.

Their skinny bodies were so interestingly exaggerated by the reflection! Watching them, it was like I had an inside view of what inspires Hayao Miyazaki’s animated creatures.


I have this sense of wonder after time spent in nature. I feel more childlike. Able to see beyond the mundane. 

Have you felt the mundane? Have you noticed the rhythm of life feeling like a single path that has been walked over and over and over creating a groove you can't seem to get out of?

Boy, I have.

And I’ve been walking that path for a while partially from the effects of how COVID has shifted life. I have simply been doing life. Not sensing the richness, the fullness, just the daily routine creating a groove of a path like a poor dog chained in the backyard circling the...