One of my walking trails takes me alongside the train tracks for a bit.

There’s always one lone locomotive at the same spot, and it’s always running, with no driver in sight. It’s not on the main tracks, but off on a stretch of side track.

The rusty red of the locomotive against the blue sky catches my attention (at morning golden hour especially).

For some time, I believed it was always the same locomotive. I wondered how long it had been sitting in that spot, running year round, and I often pondered about why it was there.

This morning, I looked back at a photo I took a year ago of “the same locomotive in the exact same spot” only to realize it wasn’t the same one after all. The number was different on last year’s photo and is likely different every day or even several times per day.

I had to laugh at myself as what had once been a mystery now became the obvious.

Isn’t this so often the case with life’s little mysteries?

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”

Albert Einstein