"The soul desires to dwell with the body because without the members of that body it can neither act nor feel."
-Leonardo Da Vinci

There are days that I just feel grateful and happy to be alive. Today is one of them. This weekend I went kayaking on the Charles River with some friends from church. While trying to avoid the rowing teams gearing up for their big race in three weeks, we were able to enjoy stepping from the city into nature. One of the things I remember learning the Boston Harbor cruise I did a few weeks ago is that both Boston and Cambridge felt pride in how beautiful the cities are naturally, so instead of building, developing, and planting to create city parks (like like New York did with Central Park), they decided to just leave the land alone. They have built paths and benches, but the rest of the work is natural. When you go out into the river, you leave behind the city and are surrounded by trees that have been there for much longer than people.

I wish I could say it was quiet. It wasn't. There was a 5K being run on the river trail, but still, pushing away from that land was like taking a breathe of stillness in. I got home and threw a blanket around me to warm up and realized how grateful I am to have a body. Sometimes I take simple things for granted. I fall into the trap of complaining how tired I am, or how much I hate my restless leg syndrome, or even that it hurts when I fall (which is often). I just need a reminder to be grateful that I feel at all! I can car dance my heart out, I can jump into a pool and feel the water slap my skin, and I can cuddle up with people that I love and care about and feel that warmth.

This weekend was a conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that I was privileged to watch. I loved it and am sure there will be more on it later, but for the sake of keeping this to a readable length,

Goodnight for now.

Jennie