Long Walks On Leafy Streets

3/3/2015 Pedernales Falls State Park, Johnson City, TX
I just finished restoring my apple laptop to its state as on February 9, when its hard drive crashed. Yesterday I received it from the Howard technology help desk after they got Apple to implant it with a new hard drive. It was quite easy to restore it to its previous state using the Time Machine backup and worked well, everything looks like it was before. I feel like I have received a fresh start in life!

I started writing this on tuesday from Austin, TX. Nicole and I were in Austin for a week-long “babymoon.” It is the first time we have taken a break of more than a weekend, in quite a while. This was also the first time I am setting foot in Texas, other than airport stopovers. I was excited and eager to see how it was like. We chose Austin because it is a more progressive city where we can enjoy the things that we like here in Washington, DC.
There is more of a chance that we can find the kind of food and cultural activities that we like. I hope over my life in America to see all different parts of it, though.

As we were flying over a thick layer of bright white clouds above the southeastern part of the US, it occurred to me that in ancient times this is where some people would have thought heaven was. Ultimately, heaven is in our own minds, but it felt uplifting to close one's eyes and let the hum of the airplane and the light from the clouds remind one that there is something beyond our little egos and everyday worries.

We stayed in a bed and breakfast called Casa del Sol on a small hill overlooking Lake Travis. You can see pictures on my flickr page. It is in a very simple southwestern style house and the owners live in one section. The wife is from San Francisco and the husband a native Austinian. She told me that the Lake Travis area was getting more progressive. On Tuesday morning I went for a run in the surrounding neighborhood. It was below freezing and I decided to turn back because I didn't bring my gloves. But the road on which I ran went through a gated community at one point and so I had to turn back. I ended up having to run all the way back but luckily my body, especially my fingers, warmed up after about two miles. I enjoyed the rest of the run with views of the lake and surrounding valleys full of the typical southwestern vegetation mixed with some Texas hill country junipers. I ended up running almost 5 miles.

Whenever I visit the western US I feel quite nostalgic because California is like a second home to me (after India). It is where I first arrived in the US. I enjoy the sunshine, the semi-arid landscape with its adobe houses and cacti, the open spaces and the sense of infinite possibilities. So it was as we drove to and from downtown Austin where we visited the Lyndon Johnson museum and the beautiful Zilker botanical gardens.

At the botanical gardens I was particularly touched by the Japanese gardens donated by Isamu Taniguchi. A Japanese-American who came here before world war II he built the intricate and elegant garden mostly by himself. He wanted people to experience the peace and beauty of nature so that they could create a more peaceful world.

The previous night I was reading Thich Nhat Hanh's “Going Home : Jesus and Buddha as brothers.” He says that he does not know how anyone can say they love God if they have not learned to love humankind, the animals and plants. Truly God is love and we can only experience love if we love all living beings and live in harmony with nature, because we are part of nature and nature is part of us.

Austin and the south in general had an unusually cold week while we were there. People kept saying how miserably cold it was. But on Thursday we got a brief reprieve when the temperatures rose above the forties. I was able to really enjoy my run and my fingers and toes did not hurt at all. I was able to take in the fresh air and the vistas all around me. This area of Texas is called the hill country for its higher elevations and hilly landscapes. We experienced a bit of this when we visited the Pedernales Falls State Park on Saturday. Incidentally it is near Lyndon Johnson's birthplace. It was quite cold and drizzling all day and we mostly stayed inside the car or indoors. Nicole had the inspired thought to play some country music on the radio. It really helped us feel one with the world through which we were passing, a world of ranches, open countryside and small towns with typical country stores. There were a few miles where the road went through land that looked remote, as if we were in the wild west. Inside the park we couldn't walk much because Nicole is pregnant and it was too cold and wet, but we did enjoy a short walk through a row of junipers to the Pedernales river and waterfalls. You can see this trail in the picture above. The park was mostly quiet except for a few people going fishing or just enjoying the scenery. They were all very friendly.

On the way back though we just enjoyed the silence and the beauty of the misty rain. Later as we were tasting the delicious Italian food at the Grove kitchen near Austin I told Nicole that of all the things during this trip we would probably remember that walk to the waterfalls and the silent drive the most. I feel that some of the most memorable moments in my life are those that I spent communing with nature.

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