04/13/2024
One last sunrise
I’m eating breakfast in the sweetest local landmark that is one part cafe and one part community center. Around me right now:
A knitting circle who are definitely talking trash in between the knit one purl two
A local couple and their dog, wind-battered and weary from sleeping rough, but all three tucking into a warm breakfast (because that’s what community does). The dog might be part wolf, but right now she’s happily splooted under their table, softly snoring while Joni Mitchell sings a lullaby about soul-deep homesickness
Young exhausted moms with wide-eyed babies woke before the sun, holding onto their coffees like a lifeline
College students (slightly hungover?) rehashing their Friday night shenanigans
Early Spring thru hikers enjoying their last meal in civilization before letting this magnificent forest swallow them whole and spit them out up near the border
My barista, who replied “just okay” when I asked how she was. She good naturedly shared that major car repairs were the big stressor, but that she loved getting to ride her bike down the hill in the sunshine (I put extra $$ in the tip jar, thinking about her return bike trip back up the very steep hill I just lazily drove down)
An older gentleman sitting in the sunny window with his book and nodding off while holding it (life goals, honestly)
A dreamer, writer, and people watcher taking it all in, noticing the gossamer floss of the words floating all around her, content in the knowledge that wherever these seemingly ordinary threads of life intersect that the tapestry of community comes into being, and that it is a gift to be woven in
It is the best last meal in the best place. I am so grateful to have had this time to myself for myself. And now it’s time to head home, fuller of heart for having steeped in the deep magic of this place and its people and ready to be wrapped once more in the loving arms of my husband and sons❤️❤️❤️