I have been so reluctant to write for the last couple of months and I’ve honestly questioned whether I would return at all. Every time that I take a leave of absence from blogging, I feel like I should play catch up on the details of life. I know that’s virtually impossible to do but I still feel compelled to document the passing days and months. Today, it’s quiet at work and absolutely beautiful outside. It’s torture to be constricted to an office on days like this. But the warmth in the air has me daydreaming of kayaking over clear waters and feeling sand between my toes. It’s a sign that summer is finally upon us and that before long the bounty of the garden will be overflowing with green.

Days like that make it easy to write because they induce a euphoria in my mind that is pure bliss. And who wouldn’t want to share that? With the recent passing of Lach’s dad, it’s been more trying to find adequate words to express the emotions and uncertainties that death inevitably brings upon us. I suppose it helps to mentally process those types of traumatic events and that, in turn, alters our focus. For one, it’s brought me a greater appreciation of home and how vital our comfort zone is to the healing process. I’ve consciously tried to alleviate stresses and focus on the array of good things that define our life.

Those of you that read Lach’s blog, know that we’ve recently gotten into the geocacheing phenomenon. It’s been quite the adventure to find new green spaces around our city that we didn’t even know existed. We love nature and to hike, and we’re geeks to the core so this new obsession hobby fits us perfectly. So far, we’ve found caches in three states (WA, OH, NV) and we’re trying to place our first hide too. We also went to our first CITO event last weekend and met some very cool local cachers- including another southern transplant, from TN. Geocaching has gotten us into nature more often and out of the glare of the tv or laptop.

That’s not to say I’ve been completely disconnected… the “magic” iphone doesn’t leave room for any disconnect, lol. I hesitate to admit it but I’ve become addicted to facebook and it’s much of the reason that I’ve abandoned APA for all this time. It’s just been much easier to plug in random thoughts than to have a cohesive post, that requires some dedication and contemplation. There is a limit to how much I’m willing to share on FB though and it’s a bit ironic that I feel more comfortable bearing the contents of my soul to a semi-anonymous blog audience. Some of you may remember this post and therefore understand my trepidation in regards to some of my online “friends”. I have more to elaborate on that subject eventually but as someone recently put it, “That’s a whole ‘nother Oprah”.

But today, I’m being grateful for a stranger- a former Mississippi boy in Eugene, Oregon whose comment lead me to his blog and inspired me to write again. So I’m sending a thank you from Seattle, Mr. Snowbrush. I’ll be responding to your comment in a upcoming post.