Simplicity

Routine - some people steer clear and others, like me, relish it!  Routine helps me stay on track, much like boundaries.  I enjoy developing a system and refining it.  I confess I am not terribly spontaneous.  I have actually planned spontaneous moments!  Yeah, I don't do spontaneous very well but give me a routine and I can shine!

One routine my kids and I enjoy is a nightly after-dinner walk with our puppy, Charley.  It's good for all of us; it helps Ben and Elizabeth burn off a last bit of energy before bedtime, does the same for Charley and for me?  Well, it simply gets this self-proclaimed hermit out of the house. 

The street we live on is not very long, maybe half a mile.  It's hilly; after all, we do live in the mountains!  (I jokingly say the only flat spot is from the kitchen to the bathroom!)  At the end of our street is a heliport used primarily by the SoCal Edison helicopter for business purposes but also for emergency situations, to airlift medical trauma patients to valley hospitals. 

We usually take our evening stroll out to the heliport about 7 o'clock, the sun just beginning to dip below the silhouette of the mountain ranges in the distance.  Tonight, like most nights, there was a cloudless blue sky as far as the eye could see.  Much later tonight, that beautiful blue will give way to a blackened night, thoroughly glistening with stars.  It's breathtakingly stunning.  While out near the heliport, however, as day yields to dusk, there is an ever-so-slight breeze, just this side of cool - not enough to make you shiver but a refreshing whisper across bare arms. 

Aside from the noisy antics of my children, it is virtually silent... and so serene.  Simply serene.  It only lasts for a moment but oh! what a moment!  It is for these moments that I choose to live in Big Creek.  Away from the complicated chaos and cacophony of the city.  Away from the rude indifference of strangers.  Away from the illusion of normalcy marred by oppressive heat, worldly temptations, and distorted truths.  Living here is simple... something I have sought for years.  Life is complicated enough; I'll take the simplicity of this life in Big Creek.