From Summer to Winter
I had an idea for one of my blog
regarding taking pictures of my blue hat with the pink purse hanging on the
back of various doors in my travels somewhere along the lines of the bathrooms
that I have been in, behind closed doors, waiting in line, afraid to sneeze, and
I think that I drank too much tea.
Today as I was in another of the
little rooms, I found my little mind wandering after I had taken care of
business. It occurred to me as I sat
draining all of the tea of the morning letting it tinkle into the pristine
white bowl that suddenly, quite suddenly, the weather had changed from summer
to winter over the span of a few days. Ordinary,
it creeps up on us with a different scent in the morning air, with leaves
falling, pumpkins growing deep orange in the fields while fields of cornstalks
start to turn brown.
For me, this morning, it was my
black winter raincoat hanging on the hook of the stall that I was in with the
pink purse hanging with it. It was an “ah”
moment. After putting myself back together. I put the lid down on the toilet,
unzipped my purse and pulled out my camera. Well, so much for inspiration as I
backed myself into the corner of the stall, hoping that no one was next to mine
wondering why my feet were so close to the back wall as I struggled to get the
right angle, the complete picture of both the black coat and the pink
purse. I did worry about how I was going
to straddle the toilet hampered as I was with a very small closed space,
fortunately, I was able to achieve what I needed.
When I shared my adventures with my
husband and mother-in-law as we sat waiting for a table at a local restaurant,
she remarked that I was a strange one but after thirty-five years of knowing me
it did not really surprise her too much.
After all, I am still packing out our bathwater to water my poor water
starved trees and bushes under the drought conditions that we are experiencing.
This morning I was awoken by a drip,
drip of moisture going down a drainpipe outside of my bedroom window. No, it did not rain and the drought is not
over so I will be packing the bathwater out to water the roses this morning.
Fortunately for us, we get the mist from the ocean air to dampen the ground
occasionally. It is not enough. So
despite the appearance of my black winter raincoat hanging with the pink purse
in a bathroom stall while I made my water, we haven’t quite reach winter and
the rains that we often get. We haven’t
even achieved fall yet despite the turning of the leaves of some of the trees
from green to brown. That is an effect
of no water, no rain.
One of the things that took me by
surprise when I was brought to Oregon by my then soon to be husband to plan our
wedding was how green everything was.
When we got off of the plane in Eugene, Oregon, it was green
everywhere. We had left from Idaho in
March from snow on the ground and where it was bare, dull, brown dead grass
peeking through where the snow had melted. As we continued to travel to my
husband’s parents’ house on the Oregon coast, it continued to be green
everywhere and flowers, there were flowers, Daffodils everywhere cheering up
the world with their bright yellow blooms.
I felt as if I was in a different world, a world of make-believe.
My make-believe world has turned
brown, parched and wasted by fire in some places. In many ways, it is a reflection, a mirror of
what can happen in our hearts, our minds.
We are bombarded by the media, the people in our community, by the
family in our lives. I find myself
sometimes surrounded by the lack of summer in the world around me, instead
winter seems to be everywhere. But as always, I bundled up in my black winter
raincoat, sling the long strapped pink purse over my shoulder and head out to
face my summer fading into winter with a smile on my face.
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