I was going through the photos on my laptop the other night and I found a dozen or so that I had taken of the same tree in my backyard.
Pictures of that tree in the morning, when the sun is just coming up.
Pictures of that tree at midday when the sky is completely clear and the shadows are dancing across the lawn.
Pictures of that tree in the evening, just before the light disappears from the sky.
There's something really peaceful about sitting at my patio table and staring at that tree.
The white house behind that tree to the left is where I play sheepshead with my neighbors almost every Tuesday night.
Behind the shed on the other side of that tree is my neighbors' backyard where we sit around the firepit and laugh on warm summer evenings when we are all home.
It's one of my happy places.
A place where I can go to catch my breath and find calm.
The winter this year in Wisconsin has been brutal...it's May now and there has only been one day where it was nice enough for me to sit out on my patio.
I took the cover off my patio furniture that day...and two days later it snowed.
I miss being able to be outside and sit in my happy place.
I think everyone here is feeling it lately.
Things seem heavy and dreary and a bit like we're slogging through life right now.
I wish I could will the warm days to come and the sun to shine.
But I can't. This weather is tough.
This season is long.
The longest.
I know eventually the weather will turn.
But until then I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I'm not going to tell you that life is sunshine and rainbows.
I'm just going to let it be the suck that it is right now. Acknowledge it and sit in it for a bit.
I'll watch my tree from the kitchen window, from inside where it's warm and not raining on me.
And stare longingly at my patio chair.
I'll join you soon my friend.
Soon.
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