Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There
With a blanket spread out on May’s green grass, my husband and I are finally idle. Balanced in between Friday and Sunday, in between household chores and calls to take care the body, we extract the essence of the moment. As the breeze pollinates me with the scent of spring flowers, he tells me about a beautiful dream he had. In it he sees his dead father. Tears well up in his eyes. “Oh, the sad mystery,” I say. “There’s such a bittersweet beauty to anything that makes us remember our soul.”
I stroke his black crow hair and hover over him like a hummingbird writing in my notebook, as he drifts off to sleep. I resist the urge to get busy working in the garden. So I listen. Every sound is amplified; the whish of wind, the flap of notebook paper, the shrill trill, chirp, and tweet of birds. The birds are busy for me.
“Doing nothing expands time. It’s all right here,” I write in my notebook. ~ 5/19/07
Comments
Colleen, that's the most beautiful short story I've read in a LONG time!
Posted by: Janet | May 22, 2007 10:30 AM
Thank you, Janet. I'm so glad that the articulation of those moments came across. Time spent that way is so renewing and realigning for us. It was another porch vacation that extended to the yard.
Posted by: colleen | May 22, 2007 10:52 AM
i can't seem to remember anything about that dream now, but at least i have a felt sense of that moment again now via your way of recording and archiving and poeticizing such lived moments of this amazing mystery. so blessed we are to live in it together. i do remember you hovering hummingly xoxo
Posted by: joe | May 22, 2007 4:24 PM
Beautiful, simply beautiful. Your writing is so vivid, so clear. Makes me feel that I was there too.
Thanks for stopping by - am so glad your site is active again!
Posted by: Christine | May 22, 2007 5:18 PM
Wow...that sounds wonderfula nd what a couple of gret quotes. Would you be gracious enough to let me use that first one as a writing prompt?
Posted by: Leigh in Atlanta | May 22, 2007 8:22 PM
Go for it, Leah. I actually first heard the line from my friend and fellow Floyd folk poet, Will Bason.
Posted by: colleen | May 22, 2007 8:27 PM
You've captured the essence of a simple yet beautiful time lapse...and I love the title!!!
Posted by: ruth | May 22, 2007 11:21 PM
I LOVE this post Colleen! And it is not a coincidence that I posted my Hummingbird Pictures...Do take a look! You are such a poet, my dear.
Posted by: OldOldLady Of The Hills | May 23, 2007 5:52 AM
Sounds like a fabulous way to spend life.
Posted by: Pearl | May 23, 2007 9:27 AM
SO very true...nicely put Colleen. It is good to slow ourselves down once in a while!
Posted by: Deana | May 23, 2007 10:24 AM
I love this:
"Doing nothing expands time. It’s all right here,”
So true. I have been so busy I have not had time to visit. I miss coming here. Your blog helps me to remember to breathe.
Posted by: Nancy | May 23, 2007 11:26 AM
I was having trouble articulating why I loved this post so much, and then I saw Joe's comment, and nodded to myself. Yep, that's why.
Beautifully articulated, all the way around, from memory to verse.
Posted by: Jennifer | May 23, 2007 4:00 PM
word for word truth
you unfolded each with
tender grace.
How you stir the soul sweetly.
Posted by: tongue in cheek | May 24, 2007 2:37 AM
Such a beautiful picture you painted here. I felt peaceful just reading it.
Susan
Posted by: Susan | May 24, 2007 8:33 AM
what a wonderful state of being. This beautiful, calming post drew me in well before I noticed its title - perfect. Thanks for continuing to visit my blog and for your comments.
Posted by: Unfolding Rose | May 26, 2007 2:39 AM