Stretching Time

I am sitting here in Ojai. The kids are gone; it’s just Ray, me, and the dogs. I can hear a mourning dove cooing off in the distance, a bird tweeting in a nearby tree and a car shifting gears on the highway, which is at least two miles away. Cordelia – the Corgie – is asleep on the couch beside me; Sammie – the Scottie – is sacked out on the floor. Ray is outside putting food away in our new/old refrigerator that is in the well pump house where there is electricity. (We are thrilled with this new innovation since we have been living with only an ice chest for all the years – a little over ten – that we have owned this acreage.) The wind is blowing enough to move the limbs on the orange trees, the sun is shining, and the temperature is now dropping down to 68 after being about 74 all day.

This is one of those places where time seems to elongate in the best possible way. Twenty-four hours here feels like a week; forty-eight hours, a month. We are unplugged and disconnected except for the occasional glance at a cell phone to do a Facebook status update and to make sure nothing horrible has occurred in the world, and also once a day I pull out this computer to write a blog piece. But to post I have to walk a quarter of a mile to my neighbor’s house and sit on her patio to pick up Wifi. As you might imagine, I try to have everything written before arriving so I don’t feel like a squatter/stalker once I am over there.

I am so used to going, going and going that being this relaxed moves me to near silence. I have nothing to say really. I just want to sit and enjoy the day. That feels strange, but good. As if my body and brain are letting me know that there is nothing new to add, life is good, plain and simple. Let it suffice to say that I am enjoying this rest. The end of the school year is perfect for this. Everything old is ending; nothing new has started up. An in-between time in a quiet place. Nothing but good can come from that.

I hope your holiday weekend has been equally as enjoyable. Please take time to relax this last evening before the new work-week begins.

I will see you tomorrow.