Thanks

• For the greenbelt, because I love to walk along the river, love its movement and its sound.
• For the plenteous blue sky, the wisps of white clouds, the jet vapor trails, because during those last several weeks of rain and dreary gray days I had been thinking of Ray Bradbury's short story, "All Summer In A Day." But this is day two of wonderful color and glorious air. (Read the story if you haven't. Not a light-hearted one, just so you know, but good.)
• For the openness of people here, because they will look you in the face, maybe even smile and say a word. Like the guy running by who said, "Finally, a beautiful day."
• For the birds on the wires. For the martins zooming here and there.
  
• The songs of birds--red-wing blackbirds, robins, quail, even the sparrows.
• The young woman running with her beautiful blond dog loping along behind her.
• For my shoes. They're Brooks, and they're really good.
• That I can walk.
• For the middle-aged jogger struggling along in his too-tight gray shorts which made very clear the line of his "athletic supporter," which then caused a person (me) to think, "You know, wearing a bra is not so bad."
• For the rhythmic whirr of bicycle wheels as they pedal past.
• And for the riders who call out, "On your left" as warning. Well, only one did today, but that's pretty good.
  
• For the two women walking along, conversing in a language I knew was Eastern European but not which one and because I always want to know I asked. They're from Bosnia, they told me, but they have been in this country long enough to speak very good English, I say, and long enough that their reply to my "thanks" was "not a problem."
• For the order of the golf course and the wildness of its perimeter.
• For chicory's blue flower and the purple phlox.
• For the fence between me and certain golfers.
• For my lovely car waiting just where I left it.
  
• For the fact that after 55 minutes I could say, "Come on, Carol, pick it up" and actually do it.
  
• For the Saint Saens piano concerto on the radio after I got back into the car and for the fact that I knew it without being told.
• For this wonderful day.

And, oh yeah, my cell phone so I could call Alyce in DC while I was walking.