A Perfectly Wonderful Day

I have spent the day in a delicious haze; a stupor even. I am now just noticing the time- as I step back to wonder where and how my day has been spent. My consciousness has been anchored elsewhere and I’ve floated and drifted on my whims of the moment: coffee, paper, food, repeat. Drive, mini nap, coffee, repeat. I made the Good Rounds and saw the parents, put in some TV time, lingered here and there in lazy conversation. Good friends and family met me in the morning, with equal passivity towards activity.

It was a day of backyards and their subdued noises. There were the chickens to be visited (hastily fed and eggs warily gathered), sparse conversation with the sprinkler’s hypnotic chka-chka-chka-cchhsshh, and finally my own backyard with the comfortable chatter and murmur of The Ducks.

I swung in the hammock for what I now know to be hours- the pitch and roll of the hammock knocking all my thoughts about. The dilemma of choosing between a nap and my book occupied the more conscious parts of my mind, and oftentimes I didn’t need to choose- I dozed and woke; ebbed and flowed. I rocked and listened to far-off children in the street, the occasional drone of an airplane, the busy rustle of the tree branches. The sun slowly made its way across my legs: temperate for July. Daydreams came and went. My friend took pity on my inertia and brought out dinner.

I only noticed the change in time when the flies started to bite. I feel that for the first time in a long, long time, I successfully checked out. Where I checked in to, though, that’s anyone’s guess.

If ever there was a way to celebrate independence, this, this is it.