We took our seats on a bench overlooking a wide green field. The grass was cropped close, an emerald velvet expanse beneath vast cerulean skies. Along the edges, great hay bales marked its boundary, holding back the encroaching wood. In the distance: a farmhouse, grain silos, a faint gesture of habitation against all that openness.

We watched the light and the shadows. The wind and the clouds. Wonder unfurling in real time.

(to be continued tomorrow)