Under a baby blue sky . . .

. . . a baby blue sky above EVERYTHING, as far as I could tell—the university, the roads, the mountains, the rice fields, my garden, all the stores, the lotus pond—I left my office and headed home.

But I took a minute, ONE minute, to check out the nejibana (Pearl’s Twist).

Maybe the baby blue sky influenced me a little. Maybe I would have stopped anyway.

Then, after a stop at the grocery store,  I walked down a sidewalk to see how . . .

. . . these guys felt about the blue sky.

FIVE minutes.

Then there was the drive through the rice fields.

A leisurely THREE minute stop.

And then a stop at the lotus pond.

There’s so much that amazes at the lotus pond.

Not the least of which is how the lotus flowers,  in various stages of blooming and withering, at various times of the day, with the sun out, with the sun behind the clouds, stay ablaze.

And then there was the fine crystal to be searched out.

ELEVEN minutes.

And then at home, how can you not take a walk through the garden? Things are growing back there.

And folks are out there doing their things—including stopping for their own rests. Acorn squash seems a nice sunny place to catch your breath.

He’s resting? Working? Some time it’s hard to distinguish between the two.

Regardless, SIX minutes. For me.

In all, TWENTY-SIX minutes. If it seems like a waste to you, just imagine that I was stuck in traffic.

Car traffic, that is.