All the Birds of This Day

Today I threw three handful of pebbles, one at a time, into a stream at the end of my in-laws property. I didn't do it alone, my niece and nephew were with me. When we ran out of pebbles, we threw in handfuls of dirt, just to hear the sound, and when we got tired of that, we built a boat out of a stick and some leaves. We also found a lady bug under a very prickly leaf and spent a good deal of time letting it crawl from hand to hand, until we left it in a new home we made for it: an a corn husk that was left in the lawn that afternoon. We also took a hike into the woods with the next door neighbors. We walked above Carl's parents new house and property and found a scattering of pasty orange mushrooms which I can't remember the name of now, but which are safe to eat. The air was cold enough to pick pumpkins and feel excited about fall. It was worth a 13 hour drive and sleeping in the car to be in a house full of people we love for a day. It seems then that this post is turning rather sentimental. I didn't mean it that way, but I guess I don't know what I expected when I started out by throwing pebbles into a serene stream in a beautiful place with some adorable children. I guess this is to say, I think we will always find ourselves happy in ways we least expected.