Thankfully for me, my roommate in Ashland was an early morning runner, which of course I am not. So when she left to run I took over the entire bed and slept luxuriously until I just like sitting up and reading my book in bed. I pulled back the curtain to let in the sun and the lovely view of the surrounding hills and just sank back onto my pillow to enjoy the quiet morning. The novelty of no one needing anything from me. When I finally showered and descended, lots of the girls had already left to walk into town for coffee and breakfast, so I walked in with two who were going to a 10am tour of the theaters, an event which must be booked ahead or I would have joined them. (Something for next time!) I got a cup of coffee and a blueberry scone and walked down to Lithia Park, wherein I got lost for the next two hours. This park begins at the edge of the staircase that leads you to the courtyard where all the theaters converge and extends about two miles up Ashland Creek. It is an absolute jewel of a park and I had tears in my eyes almost immediately as I walked in and around its trees, over its romantic bridges, up the steps of a Florentine fountain, around duck ponds and a Japanese garden and through the sycamore grove where a wedding was to be held that afternoon. I sat for a while on one of the hundreds of perfectly placed benches in the park. Each one is tucked into a little cranny where you can lose yourself for an hour or an entire day if you wish. I sat and wrote in my journal with the music of the running creek drowning out the whole world. I thought about how if I lived in this place that I would resolve to spend a spell of time upon each of the park’s benches in order to take in each spot’s different advantages, and maybe I would only come out of the park when the horn blows and the flag is raised signaling the next play’s start. Or maybe I would venture out to Agave for one of the most delicious tacos I have ever tasted, made on a corn tortilla so fresh it is still soft and warm. But alas, I do not live in Ashland and I wasn’t sure when I would return so I tried to soak up as much of that park as I could on Saturday morning and put aside my imagination’s efforts to plan return trips. Just enjoy the moment. It is a long recurring fault of mine that I have been known to wither away precious hours in a place for all the thinking of what might be. Who else must see this? How can I get in touch with Taido and tell him that he MUST take the kids to Agave for a fish taco? If only my sister could see this food. If only Sarabeth could sit in this theater. If only every one in the whole world could walk the lanes in this park, surely world peace would prevail. It’s a family fault. My brother is currently in Kenya with a group of people with whom he works because he wanted so much to share with others what he himself had already seen. The beautiful spirit of the Kenyan people, the Lord’s glory rising in the Kenyan church and the abject poverty in the land could only be understood fully by going and seeing and touching. Certainly wanting to give the whole world a ticket to Comedy of Errors and a picnic in Lithia Park isn’t quite as noble as a desire that they experience Kenya but both wishes root from the same core desire. To bless another with an experience that moved us.

As the morn melted away and the afternoon sun lingered high, I took my sign that it was time to meet some of the others for a picnic lunch in the park. We took our tacos and chips and sat on and around a rock wall, spilling onto the grass and visiting all the afternoon. I got to visit extensively with my sweet friend, with whom everyone present wanted to be of course, but she graciously managed to move and flow about all weekend, giving each girl in her turn a longer moment. I am afraid I completely monopolized her on Saturday afternoon. Even after the six of us in the park decided that it was time to move on and find the others, think towards preparing dinner and getting ready for Othello (be still my heart at the very mention of such a masterpiece!), I still ambled near my friend, talking as we walked. But we had years to catch up on. We have both given birth once more since we last saw one another, and miraculously in the same season, so that we both now have two-year olds. Hers is a darling little girl with golden curls and sparkling blue eyes. So precious. So there was much to discuss, and so luxurious to be able to talk and talk without interruptions from children or telephones or anything from real life. The whole afternoon was like a moment in time suspended above all mundane and tedious happenings. It was only as we began to head back to the house to cook dinner that we were all brought back to reality by a call informing us that Laura’s mother had experienced a fainting spell, from which she was recovering at a nearby hospital. So Laura and her sister rushed off to the hospital and the rest of us returned to the house, to which they all soon followed, Laura’s mother happily recovered from what was perhaps dehydration or more likely, being overwhelmed to the point of collapsing by the delights of Ashland. We had a beautiful dinner of fresh salmon, sourdough bread and salad around a large dining table, followed by chocolate mousse and a pear almond torte. Both birthday treats came from the nearby Apple Cellar Bakery and were perfectly melt-in-your-mouth delish. The crust of the torte in particular was something from a fairy tale. Other worldly.

Such a wonderful day, and the best still yet to come.