Oh, my blooming passionflower...

(Continued, from previous "blue" blog..)

Once I got outside my front door, I said hello to the orange tabby cat who often lounges on the stoop, and I was likewise inspired to do the same.

Although it had been a chilly, fog-ridden morning, as I sat on the first step and leaned my head against the wall next to my door, I noticed the sun had broken through and was now warming my cheeks. I closed my eyes and sighed, listening to the sounds of the 'hood...

Surprisingly, there were birds--loudly but sweetly singing on the telephone lines overhead. The faint sounds of laughter in the house next-door. And the distant train-squeal of BART, and a car alarm going off on the next street over. Still, blissful, for Oakland...

I opened one eye and noticed the huge lavender bush in front of me, how a bee drunkenly made its rounds from bloom to bloom. I pinched the top of one of the lavender blossoms and breathed in its soft, sultry fragrance...

The cat seemed to notice my floral appreciation, and took the moment to stretch out even more langorously, under the shade of two cactus plants in terra cotta planters. I swear he was smiling, Cheshire-like...

Suddenly, it dawned on me what I had been thinking about, a year ago on Maui, when I was contemplating the big move here. I remember thinking that I was becoming more and more interested in going someplace where I could discover the hidden beauty in the cracks of ugliness surrounding me, rather than what I perceived Maui to be, at the time the complete opposite.

And then I also remembered a quote, cheesy but true, that "Life's greatest journey is the one you take within yourself."

So yeah... while I sat there on my porch, with the sun warming my face, the lavender sprouting beside the concrete of my driveway, and the cat teaching me something about really relaxing, I guess I realized that I had not only found some of that beauty right outside my front door, but it also reminded me to keep looking for those places within myself, too.