Little Thoughts That Sparkle

It seemed a good idea at the time...

 So here we are, (well alright, here I am), posting shiny thoughts and seeing where they go. Having no experience as a blogger (ooh, can I begin a sentence that way? Bad geek! At least I didn't start an entire paragraph that way), I of course decided, "how fun - grab a blog name and let's go" before, well, finding a direction for it. Hence the name... so at least there's no false advertising going on here. These are my... shiny thoughts.

It's New Year's Eve Day (an odd title in itself), and seems to be a good place for beginnings or setting out upon paths. I was to have set out upon a literal path this morning, with Holy Hikes... they're off in the Muir Woods today, and it sounded like a lovely idea! But something about getting out of bed early to drive into Marin, so I could walk for a few hours, come home, bake a torte or two, run a couple of errands and then drive an hour down to tonight's New Year's Eve gathering of friends (and eventually, drive back)... sounded like a bit too much to attempt in one day. Or maybe I just got caught on the getting-out-of-bed-before-9am part. Rare for me, but true - I did sleep in this morning.

Holy Hikes is a group I stumbled upon recently... someone had mentioned it, so my sweetie and I went and checked it out, doing a short hike up in the Presidio. Fascinating, doing an "All Hallows Eve" hike, Episcopalian-style... hadn't known there was such a thing! Well, there's Pagan narcissism for you... it took becoming an Episcopalian to do a Hallows Eve hike. It was gorgeous - only a short walk, but we went up past this amazing, green... I don't know, "grotto"? "Bower"? You tell me...



to the National Cemetery Overlook as the sun was starting to set. We stopped there for candlelight prayers and reflection, watched the colors of the sunset form an amazingly picturesque backdrop to the Golden Gate Bridge against the Marin Headlands, then walked back with darkness falling around us. It was lovely, and I do plan to join them as often as I can (though today was not in the cards, it seems). Hmmm... reflections are shiny, too... 1/1/12