The last few days' weather has been absolutely gorgeous, and I truly appreciate the opportunity to enjoy it. When I'm in school and arrive home the sun is often behind the trees, and during the summer it's too hot on the concrete patio. But this, this, has been delightful.
I sit out at my patio table and read, watch the birds and insects, and take photos. I close my eyes and listen. I play a listening game as I position my face to the sun for a tan, I am trying to attune my ears to distinguish all the sounds I hear and catalog them. Today on the patio I heard
Chickens clucking
rooster crowing
bikers gliding
mockingbird tweeting
crows cawing
bees buzzing
a distant train
people talking
music from somewhere
the drone of a lawnmower.
The mockingbird was making a really huge racket. I'm currently reading Man Overboard! The Story of Jonah by Sinclair Ferguson. It's really good. In Prata-speak, that means I get so totally absorbed in the book that my brain excludes all other sounds. Until...the incessant and LOUD tweeting and whistling and trilling and rasping of the local mockingbird. Bird! Dude! Stay Calm and Fly On!
The bikers were dressed in all-out gear, including the yellow neon nylon jackets, sunglasses, helmets, biker shorts and spiffy meaning business bikes. They glided past the driveway at a 6' interval from each other, talking, the one behind having to speak louder and the one ahead having to turn his head to hear. Awkward. But it's what we have to do these days.
It's Spring Break this week, and I feel for all the families that had scheduled travel and now cannot go. Riding your bike around the neighborhood 6' from another guy just isn't the same as eating seafood on some beach somewhere or kayaking on a lake in the mountains somewhere. Oh well.
We had a Zoom church meeting this morning, and though it falls far short of a normal service, it was SO MUCH better than nothing It was sweet seeing all the faces, singing together (mics off except for our music leader, lol), and hearing the word given to us from our 5 elders. Being ministered to in this way and sharing the fellowship of the word of God is something we cherish. Experiencing it again, if only via a screen made me realize just how much I'd missed it. When all this is over I wonder how much of the past 'normal' we will return to?
Here are photos of my morning on the patio.
3 comments:
Lovely post. Spring always brings us feasts for the eye and heart and a new beginning. We, too, are having our church services via Facebook. Different but still comforting. Stay well.
The first photo is stunning!
Thank you!!
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