Happy Earth Day!

I celebrated Earth Day in Fairhaven today, and it was glorious! My day was filled with green paths, spring blossoms, and happy earthlings – a squirrel, a robin, a towhee, a couple of deer, and some way cool humans.

I parked in front of The Landing at Evil Bike store, and took the trail up to the path that goes to the Post Point dog park and the heron rookery. There weren’t any pups in the dog park, and there weren’t any herons in the rookery, either. But there was a towhee on a branch, and a robin in the crook of a tree, and a hummingbird on a fence three feet away – flexing his wings, and posing – who flew away as soon as my camera focused on him.

I walked on down to Fairhaven Coffee, where Lauren fixed me a honey and cinnamon latte, while we chatted about her experience as a scuba diver and her hope to one day do underwater photography. She made me an excellent latte, and I sat down with it at one of the tables.

At the table next to mine, three gentlemen were talking about subatomic particles, how they relate and communicate to each other, and what it is that defines life. Whoah.

“Are you talking about quantum physics?” I asked, intrigued.

They nodded their heads, and one of them explained that they were talking, specifically, about consciousness. And then I threw in my thoughts about a universal consciousness of Love, and, to their credit, they did not laugh at me. We talked about teaching, and science, and outer space, and the viability of colonizing Mars, and species going extinct, global warming, glaciation, and how the land is slowly rising after being flattened from years of being covered in ice. Marshall, Mitchell, and Larry were fascinating. They seemed the perfect people to be chatting with on Earth Day.

I walked to the ferry terminal, and then down to Marine Park, and headed back to the Post Point rookery and dog park. At the sign leading into the rookery, I paused to ask a gentleman about the Arroyo Park trail that was listed on the sign. We got to chatting, and he learned I live in Bow. Bill said he used to go to the Edison Inn all the time, but he hadn’t been for a while and he wasn’t sure if everything was the same. I told him Edison is a foodie heaven – we have the Edison Inn, Tweets, Mariposa, Terramar for pizza…

… and Bill said, “And Breadfarm!”

…and I said, “And Slough Food!”

Bill was fun. He was wearing a hat that said: “It’s weird being the same age as old people!” That got me cracking up. I could relate.

Bill continued on his walk, and I continued on mine.

A runner went by me at a good clip. My sons had been x-country runners in school. I’d gone to a lot of their meets, and I could recognize good runner’s form when i saw it. This runner was good!

When I got to the dog park, I could see the runner was doing laps around the park, and, as he went past, I snapped a couple photos. I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to use the photos, though, because – even though the runner had grinned at me and my camera as he ran past – I hadn’t officially gotten his permission.

I continued on my walk and, when I got back to The Landing at Evil Bike shop, who should I see running towards me from the opposite direction but the runner I’d seen in the dog park? He stopped and chatted with me – I learned his name is Ian and he ran for WWU – but he said he was now “retired.” He said it was fine to post his picture.

I decided to take Chuckanut back to my home, and this is when I saw the deer casually grazing on the lawn in front of Fairhaven Park. It seemed fitting that they should be there on Earth Day.

“EARTH. A sphere; a type of eternity and immortality, which are likewise without beginning or end.
To material sense, earth is matter; to spiritual sense, it is a compound idea.“
-Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 585