5:40 AM

I've taken up running again. There's a long five minutes of my brain fighting hard against the alarm clock when it rings so early, but after that, it feels fantastic. My life-long relationship with exercise: never want to do it, always so happy I did it anyway. I have to make peace with it -life just doesn't feel exactly complete or like it's flowing like it should when I'm not active. Endorphins I guess?

I don't golf, so it made me discover this beautiful park that sits on the back of our house in more depth. The course is older than the town, dating back from the fifties, and was designed by an American architect. I'm already getting attached to the trees, the sinewy weeping willows especially.

This morning, the near full moon was still visible, and after a turn this pond suddenly appeared, pristine, covered with smoke-like fog on the surface. With the cedars and the row of houses (including ours) distantly visible in the back and subtly glistening, I had one of these fleeting moments of being transported by beauty. I *had* to go running. What excuse do I have, when this is directly accessible from my backyard???

I love these early morning outings, when I see no one, no car, hear nothing but the wind and the birds, when all of this is just mine.

We still can't believe our luck. I don't know why we ever doubted that moving was the right thing to do, as long and weird and tough as the very long transition was. We love the house, but this "park", this expansive view, this nearly daily putting green for M and LP, this private jogging track, this winter opportunity for sledding, snowshoeing and ice skating, is really why we truly feel like we've found our forever home.