Hi, friends. Now that social distancing has become the new normal here in Dhaka as well most places from which you may be viewing this post, I don’t expect (or hope) to be going out very much in the coming period of unknown duration. Fortunately, I have some lovely photos that I took on a glorious day out by the coast in Sonoma County with some of my very dearest friends in the world at a time in February before social separation became the new norm. I’d originally intended to stir them into one of my longer posts, with more story about what and where.

But now I’ve decided that I need something non-work to do during these days at home with no defined boundary between work and life. Also, something to remind myself – & perhaps you? – that the world is still out there with its beauty, its mystery, its passion & heartbreak, whenever we’re again able to go out to explore, appreciate and share it with one another. I find nature helps ground me in myself and remind me how small a part of this beautiful universe I am. In some odd way, it usually stirs in me compassion with my fellow humans and other living things. I hope you’ll enjoy today’s first entry in this new series, which I hope to introduce on alternate days ahead along with a few last “Signs of the City” entries which I prepared in advance, during various trips to reinforce my supplies of things like tea and milk for this period ahead. Once we run through those, it’ll all be nature on the Sonoma Coast, until…well, until whatever happens next in our world, eh? 🙂 Peace, compassion, courage, and health to us all.