My first 48 hours wasn't in pure solitude, but it provided a precursor for when I will be deep inside the Porcupine Mountains and along Lake Superior's stunning coasts. Then Friday afternoon came when I was treated to familiar faces as family came up. We all woke up Saturday morning to the sun beating off the bay - and I thought what a beautiful way to complement both studying and spending a Saturday with them.
I woke up at 9:00 and began my study session on the deck before biking downtown to a local farmers market. My aunt said she'd provide the main course and I figured the least I could do was buy some vegetables to throw on the grille. That small ride ended up lasting 3 hours as I stopped in the city park to study. It was refreshing by all accounts to see all ages experiencing the sandy beaches on a beautiful day. It also reminded me where I was this Fathers' Day weekend one year earlier. It was this weekend last year when I had tok an overnight trip to rural Transylvania to meet the director of an orphanage who I was working with in a program I was directing for the summer. I'll never forget that 36-hour whirlwind, 30 of which was on a roundtrip train ride through the Carpathians. During my few hours at the foundation, I spoke with a girl in her late mid-tweens who said to my friend, who is an attorney in Budapest, and I, an aspiring one, that she also would like to be an lawyer. "Why?" I asked. She said almost prophet-like, "because I don't want other children to go through what I have gone through. The law changes that..."
I biked back home on Saturday and went on a 1-hour kayak ride in the bay, before coming back to the beach and spending another 2 hours on Questions and Answers. Reflection seems to always put life into perspective.
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