Sometimes, it is too nice outside to go home. Today was one of those days. And so rather than head back from an afternoon thing in a part of Portland where I spend very little time (i.e. am quite unfamiliar with), I decided to explore randomly — which to me means biking down a street that looks nice until I see another street that looks nicer, and seeing what I find.
After a few random turns and maybe 20 minutes of riding, I happened upon Holgate Lane, a way into Powell Butte that I had no idea existed!
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(Holgate Lane:)
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Okay, once I saw it, I realized that I’ve actually heard about it. But it’s one of those things where I know I’ve seen Shawn, for example, say he did or did not want to take Holgate Lane down from Powell Butte, but I never really stopped to think, huh! Where is Holgate Lane?
So it felt particularly delightful to discover it on my own while I was out wandering:) And then it felt extra delightful that Mondays are “weekend” for me, and that having already dispatched of all my morning plans, I now had zero hard obligations for the rest of the day. In other words, I had all the time in the world to play.
And thus I locked my bike up, and wandered, and sat, and wrote in my journal, and watched the mountains play peek-a-boo with the clouds, and felt the fall sun on my back, and listened to the birds, and loved life so much.
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(a partially revealed Mt Hood/Wy’East, and all the trees turning fall)
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When I say it was delightful, it was fully delightful, this feeling of having discovered something and then having the space to fully enjoy it with no agenda, for as long as I wanted. And I thought, I love and value so much the wandering space I have in this world, the sense that I can set out on a random street that I hardly ever take and follow it to another random street, and with no agenda and no routefinding and no sense of what’s ahead of me just let myself find what I’ll find, and take it from there.
I wish some wandering space for all of you, too, to reveal to you what delights your soul <3