The past 2 days have been full of relaxation and conversation. It felt amazing to be pampered. And I enjoyed chatting with many different people. Yesterday, the young woman who did my nails and I found quite a lot of interesting things to talk about. She told me that she had recently become certified to do a type of massage using her feet instead of her hands. It was fascinating. When I was on my balcony in the afternoon, a German Shepherd puppy came out on the balcony next to me. He was wearing a vest that said he was training to be a service dog. When he saw me, he let out his best “Hello!” in puppy talk. I said hello to him and told him how cute he was. Turns out there were 2 of them. Eventually their person came out too. She said was training them to help people with PTSD and told me her story. After I went for a swim, I spent some time in the hot tub. There I talked with a young man whose wife had a baby 9 months ago. He told me the story of the eerily empty hospital due to COVID. Luckily, he was able to be there for the delivery. Today I went for a beautiful hike along the foothills of the mountain I saw from my balcony yesterday. At one point I met up with a young family. The dad had pointed out the deer in the valley to his son who was about 3 years old. I couldn’t see them and complimented him on his perception. The little boy took that as an opportunity and started telling me all about the deer and other things. It was a great talk, but the only problem was I could only understand a few words. His dad said they didn’t understand everything he says either. Further down the trail I came across many children climbing trees and rocks. There was a couple sitting on a bench watching them. They said all 8 of the children were theirs. I was amazed. I said “hello” to everyone on the trails. It felt so good to connect with people.

I Found God today talking with my fellow humans – and 2 dogs.