Bulverde.

For a second, everything is still.

Then it's the hum of the air conditioner, the yawn of oreo cat, the drip of the coffeemaker, the gentle steadiness of the pool's waterfall. But mostly out here in the Texas hills, it's just still. Sometimes it's a terrifying stillness: the kind that makes you feel like the walls are staring you down. Sometimes it's a welcome stillness: the kind where the sun gives you a hug and then the cold pool water gives you a kiss.

But mostly, the stillness is alluring, mysterious and questioning, leading. It allows me to ask and think and wonder the things that the noise does not.

And now it's all to life and the day's begun.