Last night I looked at the moon. Even when it’s barely there, we never call it empty. Some wind got faster and brought a little extra cold air to my face. A tree creaked a little. Another one creaked a lot. And I was able to admit to myself that I have never been on the street called Sunnyridge Lane in Loretto, Minnesota. Then, immediately, I realized that this wasn’t going to prevent me from telling you about what this street is like.
Being on Sunnyridge Lane is interesting, probably. Or, maybe it is not interesting–maybe it can be called familiar (not to me, though, because for that to be true I would need to have been on it). Maybe it is the kind of lane that shepherds us underneath a specific set of stars that we named when we were kids, but not intentionally, or in ways we would remember. It’s more like we named those stars with unique arrangements of feeling, and so their names are not spoken; they are experienced deeply inside of us. When I hear the name Sunnyridge Lane, what I experience is a feeling of authority to talk about it that I have not earned.
If you haven’t been on it before, Sunnyridge Lane is an excellent street. If you have been on it before, please contact me to help clarify whether what I just said is correct.
If an animal were to grace Sunnyridge Lane by trotting down it’s slope (if Sunnyridge Lane has a slope), I think Sunnyridge Lane is the kind of portal that would remain importantly changed by that, the kind of lane that wouldn’t simply let go of the wild grace it just hosted. When we move ourselves down a street like this, we are embracing the possibility that the new pathway we are making through space and time is one that will usher continuous sparkles of beauty along its entire length for forever.
Sunnyridge Lane deserves high marks for its strong record of shadow support. Having held trillions of shadows in trillions of different configurations, it continues to do so with remarkable stability.
If you are reading this review and having doubts about whether Sunnyridge Lane is really that important to me, then let me ask you why, if it wasn’t important to me, did I look it up in order to find out where it was?
And speaking of questions, what better way to ponder them than while on a stroll? If that sounds good to you, then let me suggest you go to Sunnyridge Lane. If you encounter any problems, such as arriving only to find out it’s under construction, I’m sorry about that; I genuinely didn’t know.