Hello Dear Ones,
Longfellow wrote “The
Day is Done” and The Children’s Hour”, both famous poems about the ending of
the day. A treasured time for many of
us. When “the cares that infest the day
shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, and as silently steal away.”
Each of us I believe
has a special time of the day that is treasured. Perhaps it’s that twilight time when life
quiets and on a cold night you take a long warm soak in the tub or sip a frothy
cup of cocoa. Ah, bliss.
Or morning when you
cradle a fat steaming cup of coffee in your hand and hold the entire day in
your lap and watch it begin to spool out into minutes and hours heady with hope--
fresh and untrammeled. Beginnings are
invitations to define ourselves anew.
While I savor my
morning coffee and winter nights with dark chocolaty cocoa are worth fighting a
war over, my favorite time of the day is late afternoon around 5:30 .
Dinner is in the prepped stage. Mise en place. Chores and errands done, I settle in my
favorite spot on my back porch swing. It’s a green wicker swing built for two.
Placed out of the north wind and shaded, I can sit there for a good portion of
the year though sometimes I need a throw to ward off the chill. Oh, and my glass of wine, don’t forget
that. And my partner in crime to sit
beside me and swing. Not everyone swings
correctly, did you know? Some swing too
fast. Some don’t swing at all. They sit
motionless. That won’t do. I have the perfect swinging partner. Over the years we’ve perfected the ideal lazy
swish of back and forth. So soothing. So
calming to swing. Movement without going
any place. Despite being stationary, one
feels untethered and free. And the
quiet. Quiet time is a gift in our noisy
world.
For me this is the
sweet hour, the sweet spot of my day.
The sun dips slowly into the west.
When the sun rays are just so, silver threads stretch across the sky
from oak to oak. I call them nature’s
fiber optics. Close by the fence, the
hummingbirds squabble at the feeder. The
hour slips away so quickly. I long to clutch
it to my heart. Freeze this sweet moment.
But of course one can’t. So I
savor every single moment and drain my glass of wine. Time to go inside. The day is done.
“This corner of earth
smiles for me beyond all others.”
Horace
of Rome
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