Yesterday I walked a section of the Cross County Trail that has a notoriously (to me!) difficult stone crossing. It should be dry enough to skip over, I thought, and decided to try it.
Turns out, that shady section of the trail is one of the few places where I've seen running water lately, where I've heard the music of liquid sluicing over stones.
I paused for a moment and took in the scene, the glare of sunlight on stream water, the tracery of shadows. I realized what I've been missing these last hot, dusty weeks.