Sunshine Daydreams
I'm outside, in the hammock, and the dogs are all out in the back yard chasing bees and eating grass. I'm ostensibly reading, but really my eyes are half-closed, and I am just enjoying having nowhere in particular to go today and nothing in particular to do. Sometimes, I see a small rabbit dart across the backyard of my neighbour, where the vegetable plot used to be before the husband passed away last year, and I watch the birds flit around the yards I can see. They stay out of mine, having lost too many comrades to the efficient canines that reside here. I'm under the dogwood, which isn't flowering anymore, but lets the sunshine dapple down onto me, and I can hear the light breeze through the azaleas and trees. I fantasize that the rabbit has a small warren in the line of trees that marks the property lines of my back neighbours. I imagine that all of these creatures I am watching live a Beatrix Potter existance in that hedge, and can hear them all speaking to one another in my head.
I'm fascinated by the fact that I can feel when the sun is on me and when there's a small cloud - I can feel the vibrant yellow of the sun, and the slightly cooling, bluer feel when it hides, even with my eyes closed. There's no discernable change in the brightness level, just the way it feels.
It's gorgeous - not quite eighty degrees, with sun and low humidity. It's a little cooler than I'd like, and the hammock is damp from the showers this morning, but I don't care. I've got a book, and the girls, and sunshine, and a hammock, and I am happy. I've got plans with friends tonight, my mother is gone back to her town, and I'm feeling more like my old self.
I'm feeling the small puffs of breeze across my skin, slightly chilly against the dampness of my jeans and t-shirt from the hammock, and I am thinking of my college friend who looked like Fred Flintstone, but with the grape jelly name, and how he always loved the phrase "amiable zephyr" and how well it applies to the friendly little breaths the world is pushing against my skin.
There are many things I "should" be doing today, but I also think it's worth my while to remember how to breathe and enjoy these small pleasures. So much of our lives are spent rushing from one thing to another - too busy, too tired, too frustrated, too annoyed, too outraged - I suddenly realise why Mama spent so much time when I was little exhorting me to go outside and enjoy being a kid. Of course, I hated it - I wanted to be inside, reading, 'cos I didn't have sunglasses, and the glare on the page made it hard to read when I was on the front steps of the house.
Now I'm inside, so I can get these thoughts down before they wash out of my mind with the rain, and I have Kiki sitting on the arm of my chair, with her small mottled face looking up at me. I slowly move my head down to her, and she nudges me, the curve of her face just between her eyes fitting perfectly into the curve of my nose, her nose pressed against mine, and her fur lightly tickling my eyelashes.
And this too is bliss. Knowing I have somewhere to go Monday, but no pressing engagements today, and all the time today I want to watch the girls play with the grass and try to chase the birds as they wing along to the yards behind us.
I'm fascinated by the fact that I can feel when the sun is on me and when there's a small cloud - I can feel the vibrant yellow of the sun, and the slightly cooling, bluer feel when it hides, even with my eyes closed. There's no discernable change in the brightness level, just the way it feels.
It's gorgeous - not quite eighty degrees, with sun and low humidity. It's a little cooler than I'd like, and the hammock is damp from the showers this morning, but I don't care. I've got a book, and the girls, and sunshine, and a hammock, and I am happy. I've got plans with friends tonight, my mother is gone back to her town, and I'm feeling more like my old self.
I'm feeling the small puffs of breeze across my skin, slightly chilly against the dampness of my jeans and t-shirt from the hammock, and I am thinking of my college friend who looked like Fred Flintstone, but with the grape jelly name, and how he always loved the phrase "amiable zephyr" and how well it applies to the friendly little breaths the world is pushing against my skin.
There are many things I "should" be doing today, but I also think it's worth my while to remember how to breathe and enjoy these small pleasures. So much of our lives are spent rushing from one thing to another - too busy, too tired, too frustrated, too annoyed, too outraged - I suddenly realise why Mama spent so much time when I was little exhorting me to go outside and enjoy being a kid. Of course, I hated it - I wanted to be inside, reading, 'cos I didn't have sunglasses, and the glare on the page made it hard to read when I was on the front steps of the house.
Now I'm inside, so I can get these thoughts down before they wash out of my mind with the rain, and I have Kiki sitting on the arm of my chair, with her small mottled face looking up at me. I slowly move my head down to her, and she nudges me, the curve of her face just between her eyes fitting perfectly into the curve of my nose, her nose pressed against mine, and her fur lightly tickling my eyelashes.
And this too is bliss. Knowing I have somewhere to go Monday, but no pressing engagements today, and all the time today I want to watch the girls play with the grass and try to chase the birds as they wing along to the yards behind us.