it was simply glorious ... so much more than I'd dared dream the experience might be ...

This photo speaks to the numbers who attended, but can't possibly express what the day meant to those who've been waiting so long for the Visitor's Education Center to become a reality.

It took hours on end to get to sleep last night.  It was impossible to move on since savoring and reliving every moment kept me on edge until the wee hours of the morning.  Whatever passes for "normal" in these dwindling days will again bring sleep in a day or so, but for now -- it's all too wonderful to spend time passively in an unconscious state. 

It begins to look as if each day now arrives with an aliveness that demands complete attention.  It's fatiguing at times, but not in a bad way.  I'm paying close attention to each moment as it is lived (or so it seems), so that nothing will escape without thorough examination and evaluation as to whether it's worth memorizing.  I'm saving only the best stuff, I think, and tossing the irrelevant.

... and yes, time now is being lived out in hurried cycles, with Christmas arriving every six weeks.

Another day or so will be needed before I can possibly absorb what this new Visitor's Center will mean to the work.  I do know that this place will bring monumental  changes, but I do have some control over the nature of those changes -- at least as they apply to me, but it's enough for now just to savor the immediate past hours before leaving them to re-start the future ... .