Come Walk with Me
@ ThankU.io 

Someone stopped here before me, gathered a few rocks and carefully balanced them. I don't know who made this little cairn or why. But for a moment, two strangers who will probably never meet shared the same spot on the mountain. It doesn't take much to make me stop on a trail. Sometimes it's something grand, a sweeping view or an enormous redwood. Sometimes it's a few rocks carefully balanced on top of one another. Someone had stopped here before me and made this little cairn

Someone scratched two little hearts into the moss on a rock beside the trail. I don't know who left them or why. I only know that one day I walked by, noticed them, and received a tiny gift intended for no one in particular. I have walked past thousands of rocks on thousands of hikes. Most of them remain simply rocks. But one day I came upon this moss-covered boulder and noticed two symbols - heart and peace - scratched into the green. I don't know who made them, when they m

I was sitting beside one of my favorite places to meditate when a homemade little raft with a great big heart simply sailed into view. Down the hill from our mountain home, across Skyline Boulevard and down Ward Road, is Jikoji Zen Buddhist Center. I first discovered Jikoji years ago when I was looking for places to hike with my corgis, Toby and Piper. I wandered down the road, found this little Zen Buddhist community tucked into the mountains, and over the years it became pa