Last night as we were flying into Phoenix I was thinking about the extremes of the last week. One week ago I was spending my last night on the river face painting, sharing belly laughs with people I had only met days earlier, singing and rapping in a talent show, participating in a native ceremony, and sleeping under the stars. Last night I was flying into Phoenix from Spokane, Washington from a business event named "Family Reunion" where we celebrate all the progress people have made in our business family, all 5000 of us. Talk about some extremes. From only thinking about having fun with 32 other people to sitting in an arena with 5000 people. If I'm being honest it was a little exhausting and kind of a shock to my system in my post-river glow.
But I also found myself noticing things I may not have noticed before. We had a connecting flight from Spokane in Oakland. We were taking off at sunset and the view was so cool. I may not have mentioned this in my writing about San Francisco but one of the neatest things is watching the clouds roll in. I have no idea what makes this happen (if you know, please share) but it seems like the land is higher or the clouds are lower..something happens which places you in the clouds or you can sit and look across the city and the clouds feel like they are eye-level. It is one of the coolest things about San Francisco in my opinion (that and the streets being as steep as they are, when you see them from a distance it is just mind-blowing.) So, as we're taking off from Oakland with the sky already being that awesome sunset-pink, it's late enough to see the city lights, light enough to see the clouds. I just thought it was the neatest thing, to peak through the clouds at the city and the horizon.
As we were descending into Phoenix we were racing a storm (we beat it, yay!) so we could again see the clouds, lightning (which I was not fortunate enough to capture a picture of) but what I really noticed was how much I love our grid! Yes, I actually found some beauty in our streets' grid system....
Even though I'm not on the river with just the shooting stars (25 my whole trip!!), the canyon walls, or the muddy river, I am still noticing the little things more and seeing the beauty (without even trying) in the every day stuff. That might be my biggest take away from the river.
