The hea
dy aroma of fading lilacs fills my nose in batches–in and out of clouds of fragrance. After the recent rains the earth is jungle-y–lush and spilling with scent and color and sound. Those fading lilacs give way to siberian iris, to spiderwort, phlox, to a rainbow of bearded iris.
My familiar bike ride around the lake is ever new as the earth continually sheds one face for another. Today’s ride began in a light sprinkle, chilly and fresh on my face. The Waunona Way stretch is a painter’s palette of gardens–color, texture, scent–hard to keep my eyes on the road. A new shelter coupled with obvious care and attention at Esther Beach has vastly improved what used to be a smelly stretch of the ride.
Stretching into the busy-ness of John Nolan drive, the Memorial Day Bratfest folks are setting up, the ferris wheel already turns, and remnants of last night’s party remain along the path. On the causeway, along the lake edge, a muskrat glides silently along, happily nibbling on a leaf as it swims.
As I ride along in front of Monona Terrace, a flood of people fill the path and I need to hop off and ride my bike. What is the language they’re speaking? Croatian? Serbian? I can’t help wondering what event preceded their happy walk along the lake. Smiles exchanged all around as I remount my bike and ride on.
Through neighborhoods where friends and lovers stroll with their dogs, talking, greeting one another in the quiet way of a relaxed Sunday morning. A tai chi student mirrors his teacher in the grass along the lake. A man baits his son’s fish hook.
My favorite hill propels me down along the edge of Olbrich Park where Veterans for Peace have set up their annual Memorial Day installation reminding us of the American lives lost in recent wars. The tiny monuments would fill every park around if they tried to reflect the total lives lost in these senseless conflicts. Each year the tombstones multiply, silently speaking volumes of the wars that seem so far away on a peaceful morning in Madison.
Life encapsulated in a hour, it seems–joy and beauty and tenderness and sorrow–with everything deserving attention.