words, not drawings.
These warm January days have been a gift.
Sitting on our porch last week the kids and I were supposed to be working on our Nature Study drawings. The kids colored and drew steadily.
But I didn’t draw that afternoon.
Instead, I picked words over drawings.
……
Blue, blue, so bright it burns.
Mistletoe,
woodpeckers
and the sound of the mourning dove.
“It mimics an owl,” London explains.
And already she knows more than me.
A kind of success, I think.
We sit at the abandoned red table on the porch’s sunny side
and even though it’s January,
it’s warm
and beautiful.
And so so bright bright it almost burns.
I start planning to hang breezy curtains on this side come summer.
I love the sound of pencil strokes
and the four-year-old continual cacophony of chaos.
Humming. Sing-singing. Words and non-words. Repeated endlessly in some sort of looping rhythm.
Today, this is school.
This is education.
And it’s as pleasing as the warm weather.
As surprising as a sunny day after a weekend of grey and wet and heavy.
It’s rocks gathered on a hike
and a two-year-old holding his sister’s hand.
It’s a novel read out loud on the porch
and a brother offering praise for his sister’s artwork.
Songs made up and sung and forgotten as quickly as the noise filled the silence.
The light breeze is like hope
and it floats across our faces
and fills our lungs
and makes the lows seem less
and the tomorrows a gift.
And if there was a way to pocket this moment,
to package it and share it,
to contain it and store it,
that would be my job right this instant.
But we know the tape and the box
and the thought and the wish are all
impossible.
Which must remain true.
And somehow that truth only makes everything
shine brighter
seem warmer
and me sigh more deeply.
It is today.
It is only a moment.
An afternoon.
But
it is
everything.
3 Comments
Jennie Ardis
The shrubs that smell are prob. boxwood. They are known to smell somewhat like cat urine. (sorry). My dad has them outside his front door… yuck.
shelley
I love your words. I'm glad you chose them over pictures today.
LaceyKeigley
Thank you!