Perfect Days

My best friend Emily is circumnavigating the globe on Semester at Sea. So far she has visited Hawaii, Japan, China and Vietnam. She still has India, Africa and Brazil to go. This was recently posted on her blog:

"I want to take Audrey to Yangshou, China. To rent bicycles and make peace signs at everyone we meet, eat snot pudding with dirt and it, and climb until our bodies hurt. Retire to a climbers cafe by evning to enjoy woodfired pizza and wine--- get up and do it all over again, every day. Learn more from each other...learn more from God---"

I am so fortunate to have a friend that knows me so well even when we are literally on opposite sides of the world. I would 100% trust Emily to plan a perfect day for me. In fact, it would look a lot like what she wrote above. She might have to explain the "snot pudding with dirt" bit... but I'm always up for an adventure. :)

--One warm, summer day in Bloomington, Emily and I decided we wanted an adventure. We drove through the Southern Indiana countryside in the Danger Ranger with the windows down, blaring Michael Jackson or something like that and ended up at Cedar Bluff Nature Preserve. (probably my favorite spot in Bloomington) There we hiked to the top of the 75-foot-high bluff nestled in the forest and sat on the space-like rock in the sun journaling and singing and praying and laughing and breathing deeeeeeeeply. :)
We then started home, avoiding the dozens of squirrels and bunnies playing in the road, but wound up at darling place called May's Greenhouse instead. We explored the exotic plants and stalked a couple old ladies, imagining them to be us in 50 years. We bought freshly popped popcorn for a quarter and local jelly (Fig-Raspberry-Orange-Ginger flavored) for some price grossly higher than it's worth.
After an hour of reeking garden havoc, we decided we should be getting home but got drawn in by a Nickel's Thrift Bakery along the road where bought HoHos, corn bread mix and those juice cartons that look like barrels--the ones parents would buy for my brothers' teeball teams. As we finally were about to make it home for real, Emily's friend called her looking for someone to photograph his band, to which I happily volunteered and stayed up late into the night taking photos of charismatic musicians.

A perfect day.

Perfect days are impulsive; perfect days are real; perfect days are spent with open minds and kindred spirits. Treasure the ones you have and always keep you schedule and heart open so you're ready when one comes your way.