Walking. So you’re telling me there’s a chance!

Posted on by Live & Learn

4:15 a.m. A rare, deep REM zone disturbed. It’s Wally, giving me kisses, his signal for Dad to take him out. I look up at him, smile, scratch him under his chin. Sigh. An 18.5 lb bundle of pure joy, at any and every hour.

I bring Wally out and back, skooch him under the covers. He nuzzles up to Mom, makes 2 tight loops to find that perfect spot, and he settles in. I slide out of the room, shutting the door gently behind me.

Weather app reads out 98% cloud cover with 70% chance of rain, with more of the same for the rest of the day.. The likelihood of getting any worthy shots this morning are low (very), with gravity pulling me back to bed, the covers, and Wally. Go back to bed. Go back to bed. Go back to bed.

The moment takes me back to the movie Dumb & Dumber when Lloyd (Jeff Daniels) asks Jim Carrey if he’s got any chance to end up with Lauren Holly, and Carrey says he’s got  a one-in-a-million shot. Lloyd (aka Dumber), excited, responds  with “So you’re telling me there’s a chance!”

There’s a chance.

I gather my rain gear, boots, backpack, camera, tuke, and I head out. No game today, I can feel it. Call this morning’s start a force job.

I pull into the parking lot. It’s been 1,257 consecutive (almost) days on this daybreak walk @ Cove Island Park. Like in a row.

After 1,257 days on this same track, you know early whether its going to be a good, a bad, or a so so day, and this looks to be one of those bad days. You just know.

It’s dark, it’s drizzling, my boots clopping on the wet sidewalk, I trudge across the bridge into the Park and look out. There, between the shoreline and the skyline, is a red ribbon lighting up the horizon. Hold on now. Hold on one damn minute. 98% cloud cover, not so much. Holy Moly, what do we have here?!?!

Game on!

I pick up the pace, confident that this lucky break won’t last long.

And for the next hour, the light show fed by the thin strip of light along the horizon, swamps the outside world —  the Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, border crossings, Washington, the melting of the polar ice caps, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

And then, the clouds rolled in, filling the remaining gaps in the horizon, but no matter, by this time I was full, Satiated.

C. Pam Zhang:
There are worlds and worlds and worlds. I need only the one.

Notes:

  • More Photos from this morning’s walk here and here.
  • Post inspired by Sarah Rose Etter: There are moments of beauty and light. It would be a lie to say it is all dread here. Even an oil spill has a rainbow sheen, an iridescent shimmer that trembles over its darkness. Life is this way, too: half suffering, half beauty.

30 thoughts on “Walking. So you’re telling me there’s a chance!”

          1. DK
            What’s cryptic?
            Considering the circumstances, it is very hard to see the light!

  9. Some of your best writing ever Dave (in my humble opinion)!! And the photo is the icing on the cake! 🙂 Well done sir!

    I’m thinking there’s a book in you if you choose to let it out. A combination of prose, poetry, and photography. (Far more interesting and beautiful than my book of ones and zeros would be!)

    Have a wonderful rest of weekend! -Paul

  12. Awh, after that sweet wally story I would have crawled back under my duvet a happy person. I would have no desire to go out in the dark night for anything….

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