Recipe for curing a bad mood − 12 June, 2008

1. Park at the trailhead of one of your favorites trails. Be sure to take your dog.

2. As you are stewing, allow a mountain biker cloaked in racing red to pass you, saying “Gratzi mia”, or some such thing in a passable Italian accent.

3. Ask the Italian biker’s friend, who the Italian biker has warned you would be coming, whether his friend is indeed Italian. Learn that the “Italian” is actually German. Share a chuckle with the second biker.

4. Be sure to visit your favorite pond on the trail and listen to the frogs.

5. Notice three tiny Robin eggs on the path, which have obviously been exited via pecking from the inside. Pick them up in wonderment, but lay them aside for someone else to enjoy.

6. Wrack your brain to think of the name of the boy who you once saw at the raptor cages with his family. Could it be Alistair? It is something which begins with an ‘a’.

7. Just as you have concluded that the boy’s name is not Alistair, see the boy at the raptor cages with his family. Find out that his name is Addison, of course!

8. Listen to Addison’s story of a determined sparrow dive-bombing a squirrel. Allow Addison’s sisters to pet your dog.

9. Have a conversation with Addison’s father about how much more beautiful male kestrels are than females; and about how quickly the Peregrine falcon can dive from the sky to attack its prey.

10. On a different branch of the trail, run in to the same “Italian” biker. This time he will say “Scusami”.

11. When his friend comes by a few moments later, be sure to let him know that this time his friend said something different. His friend will say that it was probably French.

12. Lay on the highest green of the golf course for a while, soaking in the natural and man-made beauty around you. Listen to the dull thud of a basketball hitting a backboard periodically.

13. On the way out of the park, run into an old friend you haven’t seen in ages. Catch up on news, and exchange phone numbers. Think about how pleased you are, because you can always use another girlfriend.

14. At almost the exact moment you reach the trailhead and step to the side, another mountain biker zooms up the trail. Marvel at the myriad events that transpired in order that your respective movements could be so perfectly timed.

15. Go home and write a story.