Puttering is a learned skill.  So is relaxing.  You’d think I’d have those down, given I’m not working at the moment.  No job related stress to distract me from enjoying life.  But during a walk today I figured out that I haven’t really learned to relax.  Not totally.

I’m cat sitting for a friend, living in her home on the shores of a Great Lake.  What a joy to look out the windows and see one of my favorite lakes.  This morning as the sun was coming up it made a white freighter out on the horizon glow.  I went outside and realized I could here it chugging way out there on the curve of the earth.  Trying to take a picture of something so far away and small was hard, but here’s a couple of pictures, one of me reflected in the house windows, with the ship reflected near my head.

In just 24 hours I’ve seen countless shades of blue, green and gray in the water.  I could sit and watch it for hours.  But of course I don’t.  I’ve gone to the grocery store and made spaghetti sauce, I’ve played with the cat, I’ve checked emails.  I’ve even started my “up north” exercise regime, to replace the mall walking I’ve been doing at home.  My plan was to walk up and down the stairs to the beach for ten minutes today, working up to 30 minutes in a few days.  Right.  This morning after six round trips I gave up…five minutes after I began.  But tomorrow is another day.

When my legs could stand the work I went down to the beach for a walk.  I hope to find a Petoskey stone while I’m here.  That’s a grey stone with specific  shapes within it.   They are actually fossils from about 360 million years ago, when this area was part of a coral reef under a sea.   They appear on the beach along this shore of the lake, but everyone wants to find one, so we’ll see.  You can see a picture of one and read a little bit about them here:  http://www.statefossils.com/mi/mistone.html

On this walk I found a cool smooth brown stone with parallel lines running through it.  Very peaceful and zen-like.  It made me slow down and realize I couldn’t walk the beach like I walked the mall…fast… and still find the elusive Petosky stone.  And that for today finding the smooth brown stone was good enough.   Because if I remember to slow down, I have tomorrow to look again.