As I mentioned before, some of the pictures on the video for Malene have stories behind them; they are recent, taken after she left us. I'm going to start with one that happened last week on the 11th. Some of you know from my other slide shows that there is a small woods within five min. walking distance from my house. I really like it there. It is actually an official park, set down the road far from the clustered buildings of the village proper. We live in the township. It has a few tended paths winding through the trees and wildflowers, and they have had to cut down quite a few dead trees of late, so there are many stumps and logs to sit on along with wooden benches donated by various area families. It is not heavily used and I like it that way.

I took a walk there on the 11th, with my soon-to-be-broken camera. I was feeling very heartsick about Malene and thought a walk in the woods would be good for me, plus taking photos which often puts me in a meditative-like state. So I wandered about the paths for awhile and then felt really tired. I looked for a bench, but every single one was too sunlit and too warm. Finally I found a nice reliable log and sat, with my camera and my thoughts and I felt just awful. My heart hurt and I felt very alone, not the good kind of aloneness, the lonely kind.

I sat there for quite awhile. There were tears. With my finger I drew /|\ in the dirt beside my log. It just seemed like it would help me not miss her so much. I sat for longer still, listening and looking at the trees and plants, the play of sunlight. Finally it was time to go, I needed to go back home. I readied myself to stand and as I did so, I looked across the path, my eyes drawn immediately to one spot. I stopped and stared. It was a log. And the darn thing was smiling at me!! There was a smiley face! On the log! Not drawn on, not a sticker, but part of the log itself.
I sat utterly still, staring and then I began to smile. "Yeah, yeah, I know," I said outloud. "I'm trying." And I actually laughed. I mean, come on! A log? With a smiley face!? Like the ones in our emails?
I sat and took a few photos of it, sat a bit more, and then I left for home. Hoping the pictures of the log would show what I had seen. And---thank heavens---they did. See for yourself. :)















Oh, one last thing--the rune I drew in the ground was pointing directly, and I do mean directly at it.