I spent the final afternoon of last year’s Pacific Northwest trip in a cafe called El Diablo. One of my Seattle friends always tries to convince me that the weather there is not that bad, but outside, the frenetic rain proved otherwise. The bright Latin America-inspired cafe felt like the perfect warm refuge. I skimmed through some local papers to kill time before I had to leave. In one of them, my horoscope read:
You’re in luck, Virgo. Not so much in the sense of winning the lottery or scoring a major award, but more in a spiritual sense. Do you know “Auguries of Innocence,” the poem by William Blake? I think you’ll experience what it describes: “To see a world in a grain of sand/ And heaven in a wild flower/ Hold infinity in the palm of your hand/ And eternity in an hour.”
It summed up my trip completely. There was not much to “see” or “do”, it was more about enjoying and appreciating the simple things– the company of old friends, the freedom of a mini roadtrip, flower farms and snow-capped mountains, meeting interesting travelers and friendly locals, and a rainy afternoon spent in a colorful cafe.
