SEARCHING FOR MAX EHRMANN THROUGH THE SUBTLE STREAM

Everything is in the Desiderata, isn’t it? Especially one of the early lines where it says to avoid loud and aggressive persons as they are a vexation to the spirit. Boy when I pulled up there was some loud-ass lady at the parking area. Of course her dogs were off leash and running around the cars and people, the aged walkers and everything else. Instead of pulling them in she seemed to just stand there and yell at this or that and in her yelling she was making excuses left and right. How long would we have to wait, I thought, before she disappeared somewhere on her own walk? Finally she seemed to go. Five or so minutes felt like an eternity around that bad energy. 

The place was too busy, but the other places would be

busier. So we had to go for it. We went to the forested farm-land, and it was not great but not horrible either. A few joggers came by, which was surprising. We travelled the uppermost part of the valley wall, and also down to and across to the open areas. There were some mushrooms growing on trees and some blue skies peeking through. The early buds are still just that though…buds. They need time and rain, sun and process. After the loop, it did not feel that we really had done much, - so we went down an old place known for its quietude. There is a very small stream there and a little walking bridge. We stayed around for ten or fifteen minutes looking, listening, and enjoying the quietness- finally.

Going back I saw a dead coyote by the side of the road. Right
away, because of its size and coloring and where it was situated, - not far out at all and on the right side, - I thought it was the coyote that I had seen days before, the playful young curious one that had been watching me. It would explain his disappearance.

Going on from there and taking the long way

there were some colorful fields and fences and displays of the day- sun, blue, green hill. But the last two days of the week are hardest because the crowds come from who knows were to invade the normally sparsely walked areas…

Stopping briefly to by the outsides of a handsome and small church, it could be

seen that the day was becoming clearer, warm, and sunny. I think it’s a nondenominational place and they put up sayings outside in black letters against the white plastic. Something perhaps clever or a part of a psalm or proverb. There is a small graveyard out back with names of old-timers like Robinson and McCarthy, Wells and Duckworth, or simply Smith or Johnson.

Near the end of the drive there was a hawk alighted atop a large highway entrance sign. He saw all the construction and traffic and wondered, - What are these people up to? The sign said it was the way to go south, but I noticed that when he took off he chose north.

The city is south and he knew it.

Definitely a literate hawk.

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