Early Sunday Morning

There is a heaviness to the air from last nights rain. The grass is wet and soaks the hem of my skirt as I go about my chores. Emery is tinkering in his workshop. The only sound is that of the birds chirping and singing. You feel the stillness. The skin on my face feels the exact same as it does when I am at the ocean, that cool dampness that feels so healthy. So much better than the results of any cream bought in a store. All the colors around me seem so much more intense this morning, its beautiful. I think about the fact that if I didn't have chores to do that take me to the barn, I might have just stayed inside, busy with kitchen chores or maybe just having my head stuck in some book. I would miss so much. The way the gray clouds lay in layers stacked up from the horizon...reminding me of quilt batting's stacked up on one another. I would have missed the cardinal chirping at me from the fence and the distant sound of a rather large bullfrog that visits us from time to time. I would miss the many shades of green showing forth from the different trees and the rich brown darkness of the bark. I almost expect it to smell like rich coffee beans, since the colors are just about the same.

I would have missed the drops of rain that hold stubbornly to the clothesline, looking like a giant string of precious gems strung from pole to pole.

The garden shows me what will be the evening meal. No need for stacks and stacks of cookbooks or stressing out from deciding about which eating plan to use. This time of the year, the earth gives me those answers. Eat what is to be harvested. So simple.

Pecan waffles on the breakfast table. Warm and nutritious. I am grateful for last years harvest of pecans.

The lavender and mint garden, alive with its intoxicating perfume. An old fashioned scent that draws your thoughts to days gone by. A gentler time perhaps. A time when television did not steal our conversation with loved ones from us, or keep our children plugged into computers and games, robbing them of sunshine and imagination. A time when ethical behavior was the norm and honor was understood. A time when it was not thought to be stupid to sit as a family in one room and sing and pray together.

These chores of mine, this simpler life, gives me so much more than it demands.

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