Journey-continued, part 2 of 2

(Journey-continued, part 2 of 2)
An amazing menagerie of sights and thoughts register in my mind as I continue my morning walk. There are some curious florescent pink symbols spray painted on the asphalt; maybe for the road crews. A black cat “hides” in a newly mown field awaiting a breakfast of field mice. A hair-roller adorned lady in her housecoat and slippers ventures out into her manicured flower garden to pinch a few dead buds. She apparently doesn’t realize that we are sharing these early minutes of the morning. I hurry past in order to not embarrass her. An adolescent rabbit with a “Tigger-like” loping hop decides I am not a threat and advances to within about four feet of me. I marvel at the deep green leafy tentacles of poison ivy that now totally enwrap the lower trunk of a towering butternut tree. There are deep tire ruts where someone got stuck in the soft dark mud of a secluded “out of view” wooded area. Wonder if “parking” is still the “in thing” with today’s young dating population. In the next field, the lush corn which has dashed past the benchmark “knee high by the fourth of July” and progressed to an amazing 5 to 6 feet high. I watch enthralled as a pair of catbirds capture insects for a hidden nest of hungry young ones. Amazingly, the creosote smell still is overwhelming from the wooden guard rail supports installed two years ago. Based on my limited morning sampling, I establish that Keystone Light is the favorite beverage of the litterbugs traveling this stretch.
As I turn to head east into the warm sunlight, I keep glancing left to audit all of the satellite dishes planted in this neighborhood. Some just barely squeeze a southern exposure through the shroud of trees. Direct TV and Dish Network seem to be running neck and neck in their competition for domination.
Work bound traffic increases and I am amazed how many cars have front license plates. They appear to belong to “refugees” from some neighboring states drawn by the promise of a good school district and lower taxes. They are a stark contrast to the ageing farmer who momentarily comes out of his new retirement house built next to his empty farmhouse. His fields are now planted with a crop of new “expensive” homes. They are largely populated by those immigrants who brought accumulated home equities to “the country” for a better life for their families.
As I turn back North on my final leg, the sun majestically frames the twin steeples of neighboring churches. My tiny MP3 player resounds with appropriate refrains. A fledgling Robin cocks his head as if to silently ask me what I am doing in his territory. I chuckle as I see foot high dandelions and no emerging grass in a newly planted and netted area of lawn. A perspiration covered runner steams past on the last leg of his five mile daily run. Somehow in comparison, the moisture on my body doesn’t seem merited. Oh well, I’ll just slip into my neighbors pool (with permission) and get refreshed before heading home. And so it goes as I meander along for what I hope passes for aerobic exercise. If not, at least my trek has been amazingly mentally stimulating.
As my life starts a gradual deceleration process, it is amazing how wonderfully my perspective is changing. I am slowly treasuring more of the joys of the journey and gradually becoming less destination driven. It is quite a process after being more or less a “to do list” and destination-driven guy most of my life. I am not sure how my journey this week will go, but the first two miles have been marvelous. I am looking forward to more, even if “I don’t go anywhere or do anything important.” How about you?