I sure do like it here. Who thinks up all this entertainment for us?
Four hours ago the world was indigo-blue when I shot up in the bed and let out a yelp. I had dreamed a bird flew at my face, then got stuck in my hair, which Old Dave calls ‘the Net’ because all kinds of things get stuck there.
He heard me yelp, dealing as he was with Chapter 20,569 in Dave’s Own Book of Insomnia. He says he just opened one eye, thought “Good ol’ TT” and went back to sleep.
So four hours ago we had Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” around here and now in a few minutes the sun is going to be up and spreading its unconditional love all over the place, even on the messy lawns and sidewalks ankle-deep in leaves with last night’s winds.
People are glad to wake up, that’s what I think, however much they moan about having to crawl out from under those covers.
We all have our rituals, the bathing, the drinking something hot, the stretching… Maybe we fire up the television and let the paid cheer of the morning news team wash over us. “They care!” we’re meant to think. “They want us to start the day informed of the latest roll-over, low pressure system, house fire!” It’s not exactly the way our mothers used to wake us but it will do.
So here it is Monday of the week of heavy obligation I whined about yesterday, only rather than feeling burdened I feel content. Content and even happy to be stitched so tightly into the fabric of my community.
Just now our neighbor inched up out of his driveway just like always. The newspaper whumped down onto our sidewalk at the usual time too. All over the land teachers are walking down the still-empty corridors toward their classrooms, and the lines at the drive-thrus are eight and ten deep with the eat-on-the-run types.
When I get up, I make coffee and sit right down here for an hour – and now I’m remembering I told a favored friend I would find her some footage of a ginkgo tree and sure enough here is a YouTube clip of one in Anduze, France.
I like that last one ungrammatical as it is, the way the person registers obligation and beauty. Her cat and this lovely old tree having its hair combed by the wind. The near and the far. It shows just exactly how we live.
Are there really only two gingko trees in our town? How can that be so….they are so pretty! Maybe time for one in our yard!
Ah, waking up and the morning rituals that calm us and prepare for the day. How nicely you’ve laid them out. These moments, whether making coffee or watching YouTube in the quiet dawn do make us content. You reminded me of that and how lucky we all are to have those moments: so many do not.