Yesterday Bracken and I left home for a few hours to visit a friend nearby and hopefully cheer her up a bit. It was hot and the shade was welcome. It felt wonderful in the shade. We swung on the porch swing her husband had made in the fifth grade (she’s in her eighties now, so that porch swing has lasted for a very long time.) It seems everything in and around her home has stories. In a society filled with so many disposable things, I always love seeing things made to last and things that are meaningful. We walked through her garden, we wandered to the playground. Bracken loved pointing to all the familiar things he saw in her garden that he recognized from ours. Talking with her is always quiet and calm. I enjoy hearing the stories of her life and what she has to share. She never seems in a hurry. In contrast, our life seems to go at a very fast pace. We rush and hurry more than we even realize sometimes. It’s okay, it’s the way that our life is right now. But it sure is nice to slow down a bit, to sit beneath the trees, enjoying that gentle breeze on a warm summer day.