Soft rain smells like apples. It tastes like pine trees. In class, against the windows, it sounds like somebody shushing a child. The subject today is existentialism. Existence is not a necessity, Sartre wrote. What is, might not have been. Your life, all lives, are facts without explanation. "When you realize that, it turns your heart upside down and everything begins to float."

In the quad, a student lies on her back in soft rain, licking moisture off her face. When she stands up, there is an outline of her body, light against dark pavement — a rain angel.

- Kathleen Dean Moore
from Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature

It is Thankful Thursday. I'm thinking of gray skies, lifting sun, the way dark and light pull in painfully beautiful tension. I am searching for angels, and the scent of apples.

It's Thankful Thursday.
Gratitude. Appreciation. Praise.
Please join me in a weekly pause
to appreciate people, places & things.

What are you thankful for today?