My Texas trip came to a close with a visit to San Antonio, always one of my favorite cities. My first day in town was occupied mostly with family visits, but my second day, my last day in Texas that wasn't a travel day, I reserved as a personal day, not that I did much. Actually not doing much was the point. I took a couple of walks along the riverwalk, one of several miles duration, Tikka wandered around the Pearl Farmer's Market and had brunch, I visited a sculpture garden.
I sat on my balcony, overlooking the Riverwalk, and read a book. The photo above was taken in the very early morning however, before there was enough light for reading, but perfectly pleasant enough to sit with coffee and watch the runners go by.
I did take a few pictures here and there. Bits that I found interesting. I have a new phone, with a new camera and it was fun to play with it a little bit, although mostly my focus was not on picture-taking opportunities. More likely I was just enjoying a beautiful day, breezy and cool with temperatures in the 60's. A perfect day for walking and letting one's thoughts meander.
The fall colors were lovely.
But, as per usual, I was also intrigued by human artifacts and influences.
Of course we humans always have an impact on our environment.
I continue to be fascinated by the play of light, structure, vegetation in the view from the river walk of the Tobin Center for the Arts. I believe I took the same, or a very similar, photo on my last visit.
And there is always the question of whether what is good for us is also good for our world. Sometimes we do better than others, sometimes we fail miserably, but hopefully we learn to live together. Family visits are like that as well. We start out with altruistic intentions, to see a loved one and support them, spend time with them. But our wishes and desires often overrule our kinder instincts. We want to see and support and bond with our families and friends, but we also want them to do and be the kind of people we want, do the things we want. Family visits. All that yearning and wanting and the stress of conflicting needs and desires can lead to both moments of stress and moments of kindness and empathy.
I was reading Rebecca Kaufman's The Gunners, which I enjoyed, and which was, in many ways a good book to read over the course of a few days visiting family. The book explores a friendship over many years, and a process of coming together, drifting apart, and reconnecting. But it also discusses secrets, desires, things said and things not said and how they all influence our relationships, often the things not said having a greater influence than the things said as they allow imaginations, always tainted by an isolated solitary perspective, to run wild. And yet...
It is precisely there, in the "and yet" that all the possibilities coalesce, especially the possibility of love.
