A Walk in the Park...

How to brighten up an extra work day:

1. Leave home 30 minutes later than usual - 8:00 am vs 7:30 am.
2. Buy the largest Starbucks coffee you've ever had thanks to a gift card from a kind neighbor. (Thank you, neighbour! (^.^)/ )
3. Get off the bus one stop early and take a short walk around the pond in the park.
4. Discover pink flowers in a sea of broken branches and piles of debris left over from the record-breaking typhoon in the fall.
5. Take turns photographing said flowers with a friendly senior citizen who lives nearby. Chat and learn more about the efforts being made to clean up the park. May take decades for it to recover, he says.
6. Greet the men who are taking a break from tackling the damage with chainsaws, and commiserate over the size of the job. Wish them all the best.
   
7. Enjoy the colours and smells of fall, and marvel at the resilience of mother nature. Regardless of the destruction and damage of the typhoon, life goes on as it should.
8. Head off to the office thankful that my schedule sometimes allows me such flexibility.

(If you know what these pink flowers are, please leave a comment. As usual, I have no idea...)