Even though I walk around Stow Lake just about daily (and have been doing so for the past couple of years), I still manage to see and experience things I've seen many times in different ways, something I attribute both to the beauty of the location and my own willingness to allow this to happen. Although I always walk in a counter-clockwise direction, I choose different areas to walk on occasion, and can choose either the footpath or the drive for vehicle traffic, as there are very few cars in the early morning hours when I am there.
Because of the time of year, it's quite dark when I arrive, and there are only a few people that walk in the dark as I do, but within ten minutes or so it starts to become a bit lighter, and more people start to arrive. As the path becomes visible, I often choose to walk around the perimeter where the cars drive, as I like the solitude there, finding it easier to let my mind wander when there are not people around. As I step off the walking path onto the area where the car path widens, there are a variety of trees, I hear the faint hum of traffic of cars on busy Crossover Drive, and I encounter this deep green plant with a red that just sprinkles the green with color, a color which becomes more beautiful, rich and complex the nearer I get. People can be that way too for me on occasion, but it seems that I often take a path which obscures this view.
