It has been nearly four years since I posted to this blog, and since it would require several "moments" for me to review the last 46 months, I will just focus on today as I have tried to do for the last 16 years. Cancer taught me that.  I hope one good thing that emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic is that more people are focusing on each today, finding hope, solace, peace, and gentleness.  As always, I find all of these while walking.  

One change that has occurred in the last four years is that I now live amidst the Iowa Great Lakes.  Yes, for you non-native-haters, Iowa has lakes and even a chain of lakes, albeit smaller than its larger namesake.  Today was a gift of sunshine and warm winds so I donned my hiking boots and headed for the lakes.  As I walked along the south shore of West Lake Okoboji, I  drank-in the sunshine as its path along the lake's surface followed me no matter which direction I went.  The ducks bobbed gently on the waves, happy to be free of obstructive docks and boats.  The south wind brought some much-needed color to my pale, quarantined cheeks.  I try to not always look toward the distant horizon but vary my gaze to the near-distance, the near, and the at-my-feet.  It was the latter that disturbed me most as I saw a glass beer bottle, aluminum beer cans oddly crushed yet still unopened, plastic water bottles and cups, napkins, the plastic top to a fast-food drink cup, and what looked to be a yellow planer-board.  Using the planer-board as a carrier, I put the other pieces of trash atop it.  Within minutes I could pile on no more for each time I bent down to pick up a new piece of trash, the other pieces fell to the ground.  A scene from Aquaman flashed through my mind.  This lake, finally free of the summer tourists, belched ashore all the human irreverence it had borne and could stomach no more.  Carrying the trash like a school kid carries a lunch tray, I headed for home seeing more trash as I went.  Looking remorsefully at my full tray.  I promised to return tomorrow equipped with garbage and recycling bags to remove the embarrassment of cigarette boxes and soda bottles for they, unlike the humans who discarded them, know the sand, the rocks, and the grass is not where they belong.