nature's handiwork

While reading today’s post on my friend and fellow-blogger Elizabeth Harper’s site today, I was reminded of something.

The day that HK and I were to leave Vancouver this summer, I took one last run along the seawall to my favorite little park that overloooks the sea. The park, a tiny spit of lush greenery rarely frequented by people (although there was a resident bald eagle that hung out there), was the perfect spot to practice t’ai chi in the mornings.  So, after my last session on that last day, I took a minute, really took a minute, to look around me and observe the beauty that I knew I would miss until the next trip out there.

There, right n the very beach that I had run along so many times, was the most beautiful piece of mother nature’s handiwork. It was a fallen tree that had obviously been there for a long, long time, but up until now, went unnoticed by yours truly.  As I was appreciating the carved-out formations of the bark, I noticed a stone that was lying at the tree’s base. The stone was black, smooth, with a thin white line that completely encircled it. I picked it up, rolled it around in my hand, and realized that this rock, far from perfect, had probably been there all along, from the day we arrived in Vancouver until the day we left. To me, that rock symbolized the journey that I had taken while in Vancouver, and how on this last day, I had come full circle in many ways, both physically emotionally.

full circle

I was so thankful that I had my camera with me, because I took a photo of it as a reminder to self that I need to slow down and look around.  Beauty is everywhere.