"Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley." -Theodore Roethke

Before I explain the reason behind the title to this post, I'll do a brief run down of what I did today. In the morning, I helped to build the flux chambers that will be installed at Fox Point tomorrow to take methane emissions measurements. In the afternoon, I was out with a machete chopping down Phragmites to make a wider path. It was quite warm! At this time in the growing season, Phragmites are getting to be quite sharp, so they drew some blood on my hand. The poor Phragmites were sacrificed to science, and there was some tall ones that had to be chopped down too.

One of the other interns in my lab found a bird nest hidden in the Phragmites forest. It was perched high on one of the strands. I do not think I would have noticed it if she had not pointed it out, it blended really well with the surrounding dead Phragmites stems. There was a baby bird in it, with it's beak wide open waiting for its parents to return with food.
So sweet and beautiful!



After work, I went for a bike ride. It has become a rhythm for me to bike a trail one day to explore it, then run it the next day. So today, I went exploring the red section of the Java Trail. Some of the red trail is the same as the blue trail, but then after the bridge across the marsh, it veers up a hill, to come out along side the water. Taking the path around, through the woods brought me to the sunshine again, and this lovely bridge across another part of the marsh. I love this bridge for several reasons. Two of these reason are the Phragmites poking up through the holes in the boardwalk and another reason is how seamless the transition between the marsh and the forest here is. It is barely a few meters of ecosystem transition, yet it is so smooth. Yes, that is my inner ecology geek coming out, I cannot go anywhere on SERC's campus without making a science comment. But luckily for me, I am surrounded by people who understand and respond to my comments with their own, just as geeky comment. 

So, now I reach the reason for the title of this post. After this bridge, I went back into the forest and took an alternate path out of the trees. This path was filled with tree roots, hills, twists, and turns. And as I rode along it made me think of life. In many ways life is like a nature trail. Life is full of unexpected bumps and detours in the road. Everything that goes up must come down, just like a hill. One cannot always see what lies down the path following a sharp turn. And one cannot always see how to get over a mountain, nor what lies on the other side, but one has to keep going, believing that there is a path over the mountain, and believing that there is something to keep going for on the other side. This advice may seem simple enough during happy times in our lives, but we all go through struggles when it can be hard to see the path over the mountain, yet we have to keep believing the path is there, because if we lose this belief, then all is lost. And that is one of the facts of life!

I do not want to end this post on an unhappy note, so I'll end it with food!

Last night, I made a huge dish of pasta because I wanted something I could have in the fridge to eat for today, but still be able to add something else to it for lunch and diner. So I made some pasta with onions, green peppers, mushrooms, oregano, and basil. Yesterday for diner, I had it just like that. Then today for lunch, I added some cheese and meat to it, put it in the microwave, and out came deliciousness. Later, for diner, I put in meat, cheese, carrots, and two hard boiled eggs cut into halves. I've been skeptical of left overs for most of life. But this experience has taught me otherwise. As long as leftovers are eaten in a timely manner, and jazzed up with some new, fresh ingredients, they can make more great meals!