I was lying on my back at the Rogers Park Metra station yesterday at about noon. I had missed my train by confusing the relative distances between Ravenswood and Edgwater and ended up deciding to just tough it out and walk up Clark street to Evanston, after a break.
The train platform was empty and stayed that way for well over thirty minutes, enough time to just relax and breath. Rogers Park and Clark street were really pretty quiet, for Chicago. The occasional traffic on the road, people working in gardens or on minor construction on nearby buildings. As it happened, I usually take a lunch break, not to eat, but mainly just to let my mind drift and wander. This was when I saw the dragonflies. Lazily riding the thermals about the curving expanse of railroad tracks. Raptors in miniature. Hunting or just enjoying the end of summer, I couldn't say?
I felt really and truly at peace. Couldn't have been more than five minutes, but the moment was a comfortable one. Free of anxiety. Free of fear.
The sudden juxtaposition of nature and the "built" and "engineered" city environment.
-GJS
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