Sometimes when I retreat to the hill above Mission Valley just before the sun sets, I sit at my computer and download pictures I’ve taken; and a review of the day leaves no doubt about how fortunate, how blessed I am.  Life is good.  I began the day with a bike ride which I’ve done hundreds of times out along the north side of the San Diego River to the Ocean and then back up the other side to home again.  While everything about the ride is familiar, it’s almost always a new experience.  Today was a journey into spring. Just last week the wild yellow daisies were barely beginning to show buds. Today they were a shocking, glorious site all along the river. Before I got to the daisies,  a man who looked too healthy to be homeless was standing on the side of Friar’s road near the railroad bridge shaving his head. I’m not kidding. I couldn’t think of any good reason why he would be there in a lonely stretch of the road shaving his head. I also couldn’t resist getting a picture. I sort of half-hid behind the pylons of the bridge to get it.

A few minutes later when I got to the long field of daisies, I stopped, put my camera on a post, set the timer, and scrambled out into the flowers and got a picture of myself. No apologies. I think I needed to get something that I can see years later to prove I was there and that the world is as wonderful as I keep thinking it is. 

The winter grasses growing on the inner bank of the river are beginning to give up their grayness to spring green. Snowy egrets and Great Blue Herons are stopping here to rest before going on to northern lakes.  The tide was receding, so when I got to the bridge and crossed over, I stopped midway and aimed my camera toward the east and the rising sun.  I got a clear sense of the earth as planet.  I felt the roundness of it. I felt my place on it. 

Later in the day I stopped at a favorite coffee shop in University Heights for a visit with my friend Antonio, a writer who once was a student of mine. 

As I said, life is good.