Not your ordinary, dime store, average warm sunny day beautiful either ... no, it was truly spectacular. Angelina Jolie beautiful.

I couldn't stop taking deep breaths. I wanted to saturate myself with all the aromas of spring. This happens to me every year. It seems as though, over the winter, I forget the smell of flowers ... so each year when they bloom again - it's like for the very first time. Figuratively and literally, every spring for me, the world is reborn.

So I decided to go for a run. Not only was it the perfect day for a run (by "perfect day" I mean that, if I'm going to be exhausted, out of breath and in excruciating pain ... it might as well be nice outside) but I wanted to get out and see the neighborhood.

It's so interesting to watch people on one of the first really nice days of the season. Everyone's sitting on their porch, planting the garden, or washing their car. Kids are riding their bikes and playing basketball in the park.

Things seems lighter. The world seems happier.

The next part may seem off topic. But stay with me. I'm going somewhere with this.

I often think about Heaven which you probably have gathered if you've ever read my diary entries. It's comforting for me because I am really scared of death. I don't think that I believe heaven exists anymore - but I am the product of years of methodical and consistent Catholism. Thus, the concept is engrained into my psyche. As much as I try to divorce myself from organized religion, it's part of who I am ... like body odor. I can try to cover it up or act like it's not there but, to some extent, it's a part of who I am. I can't get rid of it.

Just so we're clear, I don't smell. I was simply using it as an example to further illustrate my point. And I don't think Catholics smell either. Although, I don't know all the Catholics in the world, so there may indeed be a few stinky ones. But my friend Gio stinks and he's not catholic. He's just dirty.

Anyway, so as I was "running" (and I do use that term loosely) I was thinking about Heaven. And what it might be like.

It was about 6:30pm - just before the sun was beginning to set so the light had that warm, lazy feel to it. I could smell the hycianths that had bloomed in backyard of this little white stucco house with a still swaying porch swing. It seemed as if the owner stepped inside just a moment earlier- probably to grab a cool glass of ice tea.

An older couple - a man and woman about in their mid sixties - lived next door. The man was outside pulling up weeds. The front door was open and music was on - I could barely hear it but I think it was classical. Or something from the 40's. Very soothing. As I ran past, the woman came outside as if to call the man in for dinner. Or maybe a dance.

All this time, I couldn't help but notice how green and well manicured the lawns are in my neighborhood. And how tall the tree tower over the houses. I never want to live in a neighborhood without tall trees because they give the land a sense of time. A sense of belonging. When you're standing next to a magestic tree, you realize how young we humans are. How infantile in our thinking and our ways. Trees remind us that we are natural. That we are a part of this place. We live, we breathe, we eat, we drink, we procreate, and we die. Just like every other living thing on this earth. The trees and us are not so different after all.

By this point, I'm out of breath so I'm having to breathe in really deeply. Suddenly, the sweetest smell tickled up through my nostrils. It was a "radiant" smell is the only way I can describe it. Not pleasant or pleasing ... but radiant. I knew that whatever its source had to be nothing short of breathtaking.

That's when I looked down and realized that I was running over petals. I don't know what kind of flowers they were but their petals were dropping from the tree branches leaving the sidewalks flooded in what looked like fragrant pieces of pink silk.

The aroma was familiar to me and instantly calming. I suspect it's a flower that I remember from childhood - probably one that reminds me of summer vacation. I remember when I was in junior high and walked to school ... everytime I smelled honeysuckles I knew that summer was near. Till this day, the scent of honeysuckles always brings a smile to my face.

Then I stopped running.

I stood there and took a moment to take everything in. The people, the flowers, the light, the air, the laughing, the music ... all of it.

"This is what I hope heaven is like", I thought to myself. This moment, right now. When everything feels like it's acting as it should. When the world is in perfect harmony. And everyone seems like there is no better place they would rather be than the spot they are standing in right this very second.

I don't need pearly gates or thousands of choirs of angels. I just need a few flower covered sidewalks, some tall trees, a couple of porch swings, and an old married couple on a beautiful spring night stealing a slow dance before dinner.

I don't think that's too much to ask for.

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