Modern Hiker

Due to some morning rain and persistent, frightening-looking clouds, I wasn’t able to hike yesterday.

Instead, I headed to the nearby Los Angeles County Museum of Art to check out their exhibit on Magritte and related ‘visual poets.’ The exhibit was great but the crowds were suffocating, so I retreated into the Japanese pavilion and discovered their rotating scroll collection is now focused on zen poem calligraphy. Two, in particular, struck me.

The first:

“We should all be as high spirited as a young pony and freely
Savor all of the simple pleasures of this life: rice wine, the sea,
Billowing clouds, spring flowers, the autumn moon.”

And the second:

“In quiet retirement I enjoy the shade of
Banana and bamboo;
The companionship of flowers and rocks.
The garden is left undisturbed, and I sit
Far removed from the world’s turmoil.”

It’s the verbal equivalent of a solo hike in the mountains. Hopefully that will get me through to the weekend …