My work took me to southern California last week, and I love southern California. I didn’t get to spend much time outside because it was a short and intense trip, but when I was outside, I paid the same attention I try to pay in Minnesota – birds, flowers, water, air.

(Except that they were set into a landscape with a lot of sunshine and warmth.)

And this little squabble of seagulls, gathered in America’s Cup Bay, seemed to be working out how to organize themselves into an Escher print or some other complicated art. I didn’t have hours of time, I didn’t have a good camera with me, and my brain was full.

But there’s a book called Wherever You Go, There You Are, by Jon Kabat-Zinn, and I think of that title often. Wherever I go, there I am. And luckily, birds are there, too.