The scent of roses, ocean swimming, and nature’s rhythm.
I’ve been waiting this week to write the usual article about my thoughts and reflections. But such reflections need rainy days indoors and we’ve been outdoors enjoying the beauty of nature. That’s because it’s full summer now, with that sweet edge of nostalgia already coming in as days shorten just ever so incrementally in the evening. Hardly noticeable at first, but then at 9:30 we can feel the day’s roses pulling in their scent and closing for the night. It’s a time for me to begin to store and hold the images of the days as memory crystals or seeds. The beauty of summer basil, ocean swimming in hot sun. Something about letting my hair stay wet to keep cool in the afternoon. Or sitting outside holding a book but not really reading it, just looking at the clouds instead. Not thinking - doing and being.
As we came back to the city from the Gulf Islands, the moon was in the same phase and in the same sky, but layers of congestion built slowly. A first impact of more people was in the small ferry line for a very small ferry. Waiting strangers in small clusters. Then to a longer ferry line for a larger ferry where we stayed in our car the whole time. Travelling cautiously and safely because of the virus, we weren’t as aware of the other people. After a drive to the largest of the ferries, and a very long line: presto! change-o! Vancouver’s high-rise office buildings make a corridor leading to our downtown apartment. I can’t even contrast these heavier built forms with the remote natural environment we’d been in. It could be another planet. Except it is the same summer sun, the same half-moon.
We came home to mail, laundry, a very dry roof garden and a gift of fun super-hero masks sent by a dear friend. Life gets going again here and now, all over again.
This week’s issue is very short because SUMMERTIME. This time of virus awareness and physical distancing has taught us to seize the day, be present now. So I’ll water the heck out of the bedraggled plants on the roof, while across the street loud construction is putting up a new tall building. I’ll wear my noise-cancelling headphones and listen to something I choose to hear as I water, before catching up on some editing work. I had Wi-Fi while away and could have done the editing there - except the sun and the ocean and the roses would have none of that sort of thing. So I surrendered to being hijacked by beauty, restored by summer love.
This newsletter was hijacked too, so it’s a little shorter than usual this week.
Evening light turns the trees into flat silhouettes against the sea and sky.
Summer schedule: Look for a new issue in your inbox sometime at the start of the week.
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