What wonders water brings…a cure for a headache or a bad mood. There is a strange pre-historic animal standing stately. I marvel at what the native people saw here so many years ago when they called this river Yanaguana. I know there are places where a woman my age must have stood long ago and saw much the same of what I see today thanks to the patience this city has taken to “develop” the river south of Mission Road on the San Antonio
River. On my bike ride this morning I say out loud, “I live here.” This isn’t the first time I’ve said this. I always say I have a great life in San Antonio living near downtown in an old home where small gifts of nature sustain us on these hot summer days—fresh eggs from hens on the hottest of days with basil and rosemary in abundance. During la canícula—the dog days—the gifts seem even that much more abundant at 6 a.m. on the river at the new Museum Reach near my home on the north side of downtown. Today it was a late start on the South side of downtown at Roosevelt Park near the Yturri-Edmunds Historic Site.

I typically try to find some way to share this beauty with others—share
the fact that we live so close to nature here within a major urban area. Today
I’m on the river with a friend who appreciates the amazing cormorant as much as
I do so I don’t feel the need to tell anyone else about how smart they look
when they all stand at attention facing the southeast. I’m only certain that it’s
not a Little Pied Cormorant but at 40 species, I don’t know much else about
this pre-historic curiosity. I catch a glimpse of another piece of beauty—four black
wings with blue markings—and on down the river. I live here. I thrive here.

I heard Chaitali Banerjee share her refuge, and it made me want to
share mine…the place I live. The place I love—San Antonio, Tejas (Texas).