Sunday Hiking With My Son on a Beautiful Spring Afternoon

There has been a lot of negative news lately, it seems. The mass shootings in New Zealand. The attacks on a village in western Africa over the weekend, and the devastation of a cyclone in southeastern Africa. News that Israel, which just got official recognition from the United States that the Golan Heights is part of that country's territory despite it having gained that through armed conflict, has shelled a school where Palestinian children were sleeping. And, of course, Donald Trump is still the president, which is depressing and sometimes tragic news in it's own right, given the spike in hatred and violence which he actively fosters.

Sometimes, you need a break from all of that. 

I have been working some long hours in recent weeks, between two jobs. It has been tiring, 

This weekend offered some chances for me to both relax, and catch up on some things that I have been meaning, and needing, to catch up on. Some cleaning, for example. Transporting some things from one place to another. And, of course, spending time with my son, something that the working hours have not offered as much of as I would have preferred.

So, I wanted to shift gears a little bit, and focus a bit more on some positives, instead of merely dwelling on the negatives.

Yesterday, I took advantage of the beautiful, warm spring day by going on a hike with my son. It is a wonderful time of the year, one of my favorites, when the cold of the winter yields to the warmer, milder days of the spring. We had quite a bit of rain recently, but this added to the water pouring down the waterfall that we went to. It was very nice!

We have not gone hiking much lately.  We were both busy with moving earlier this year, and I took a couple of trips to help my parents move in upstate New York. The weather was not always accommodating.

But everything finally fell into place yesterday, and we went hiking. It was great! My son, as usual, seemed a bit hesitant (though not too strongly resistant), and then seem to have a blast once we actually we out there in the woods, picking up sticks and rocks and throwing them against trees and as far as he could out into the woods, climbing onto rock outcroppings, and just enjoying the wilderness a bit. 

Personally, I just relished in the relative peace and quiet. That is one thing that the wilderness offers us, our reconnecting into the real world, as I like to put it. Many people feel that this is not the case, that the wilderness is an escape from what they consider the real world. Personally, I feel that this version of the "real world" is ridden with the fake quality of our modern lives, all of the excesses and illusions, to say nothing of the imperfections. But in the wilderness, we escape that, we take a literal breath of fresh air, and we feel restored. That is how I felt, and it seemed like a good idea to share that experience, to the extent possible, anyway, here on this blog. 

So, here are some pictures:

First Blog

Well, here goes.....

This is the first entry to the blog. I have never had one of these before, so I am not quite sure as of yet what  bloggers are supposed to talk about.

But here's a topic, perhaps. A couple of nights, ago, on the 15th, I went to the first Prince show in the area (NY/NY metropolitan area), at the Izod Center, and was impressed. It was the second time that I ever saw him (the first was in Boston in 2004). He looks at least twenty years younger than he must be (does anybody know how old he actually is?), and moved around incredibly well, as if he were a young artist just starting out! When I reach his age, which unfortunately will happen all too soon, my hope would be to be on that level, physically. The guy is skinny as a rail, and seems to have boundless energy, as he rips through some memorable tunes with his guitar on stage with such intensity. His stage presence is very strong, and we were fortunate enough to be upgraded to some great seats, to boot! He has so many well known tunes to fall back on, and I was kind of surprised that he did not perform either "Let's Go Crazy" (which quite a few people were screaming for) or "When Doves Cry". But, a great show from a great artist, on a stage shaped like that old symbol that used to be his name, back when he was "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince". But he did, of course, perform some of his signature classics, including a wonderful rendition of "Purple Rain" to close out the first set, and "Kiss", which opened up the Encore. He will be at the Izod tonight as well, and then will be at Madison Square Garden for a number of shows.