This week, I had occasion to take the Amtrak Cascades train up to Seattle from Portland. Ahhh, serene. Riding the train (pretty much any train, any where), with its clacky sound and motion, and a window looking out, always evokes a deep peace and wonder in me. It's the wonder of a tiny child, riding effortlessly on the back of her father's bike, looking up and out at the world's beauty and mysteries as they blur by, too fast, and way too complicated to make sense of. Reduced to one beautiful, simple, ever-changing blur.

Some people were working on the train, and I figure they had about the best mobile office there is (with a continuous background movie of bridges, waterways, houses and trees going by. Mt. Hood was poking out massively in the distance as we departed Portland, then Mt. Rainier came into view as we got near Seattle). The closest I came to working was making this heartsmiley out of my coffee cozy.

I highly recommend you invent a reason to ride a train near you sometime soon (and if it's an Amtrak train, make a beeline for the Lounge Car. Trust me.) One caveat, though: don't do this on a day where you need to get somewhere fast. The train moves in its own time. Its own beautiful, slowww time...