And because Wordpress ate my previous go at this post, my subscribers got a blank email and I have to start over from scratch. Lovely.
So over the long weekend, I had the luxury of visiting a number of places where I was able to relax, meditate, and listen to nature and the world around me. I got some quality outside time on Monday at the Multnomah Country Fair. On Sunday I went down to visit the Columbia and say hello. But my favorite was Saturday, when we rode the Portland Aerial Tram.
So you have to understand that I'm a bird person before we go any further. I've long been preoccupied with wings and with flight, and most practically, with heights. When I was small, I climbed anything and everything. My mom likes to tell the story of the time she came downstairs and found toddler-me on top of the refridgerator. As an older kid, I climbed trees taller than the church in my neighborhood. It was probably a miracle I didn't fall or hurt myself, but my goal was just to get to the highest place I could.
You can guess that I was pretty excited when Amber and I took the MAX to the streetcar to the waterfront, where the lower tram station is located. The ride up was just gorgeous, offering birds-eye views of southwest Portland and the river. At the top, I stood for quite a while just looking out over the city and the river, enjoying the height and talking with Hræsvelgr.
There also happens to be a labyrinth located on another observation deck a bit lower in the OSHU hospital, so we went down and spent some time walking it. It's a single-path labyrinth ending in the center, so it was a little awkward to turn around and get out, but otherwise was a very pleasant meditation. The path is created by stones in the shape of ginkgo leaves, which I thought was a nice detail.
I only knew this labyrinth existed because of Labyrinth Locator, a nifty website that will return a list of all the public and private, permanent and movable labyrinths in any given geographic area. I'm thinking about making a project of visiting the public ones near me.