I’m standing here on the Butterfly Bridge across Shoal Creek next to where I work at the Austin Public Library, the Central Library, here in Austin. And from this bridge as I stare at Shoal Creek, I can see some people living in tents. I saw a pair going under the bridge, taking shelter packing some supplies in. And I'm reminded of how frequently I've been making a home here at the library. Over the weekend, I came on both Saturday and Sunday, arriving before we opened, and went to my office. It's not typical to go to my desk on a weekend or outside of business hours, but I felt at home. I have my space there. I have the ability to use my mind and I have the peace to let my mind wander. I've been appreciating that space moreso than in the past, and even though I had initially had a huge problem with the return-to-office directives that I thought were very arbitrary, now I don't mind. I'm coming here of my own volition. I'm staying as long as I like, and I'm coming after hours as well.
Another place that I find home, where I’ve been seeking shelter and peace, is to walk down to the lake edge, to the trail where it meets the water. And oftentimes I have to move along to a different place if there's somebody sleeping there, or if there are some birds - they'll usually share the space with me. And if I have to move beyond that place that I like to go by the surface of the water, at the edge of the water, there's a tree, a large live oak tree, just in front of the Seaholm Intake—the Seaholm Powerplant water intake of old. That area is being converted into an art gallery as we speak. Underneath that big tree, I like to do Qigong and gather myself and to plant some seeds inside my mind. It will take many years to come to fruition, and take a lot of nourishment and patience and resolve, and I've been thinking a lot about the power of places to move me into a different type of thinking, so I’m coming out of my shell to explore the world and be alive.