5.12.24
The Northern Lights visited our area of Oregon the past couple of nights, due to a rather violent solar storm. Folks who have never had the chance to witness this wonderful display got a glimpse of what my friends in northern climes see on a regular basis yet never tire of. I of course, never thought of grabbing a camera to capture the somewhat rare sighting, instead just observed with my own eyes. Friends in England got some glorious snaps of the colourful display and hindsight suggests I should have grabbed my camera to click a snap for the record books. Oh well.
Life is like that sometimes. One experiences a special moment in time and before one realizes it, the moment is gone, never to be repeated but never to be forgotten. Instead, it is indelibly imprinted in our mind.
We have family here this weekend. Darrell’s daughter Terresa plus his son Andy and wife Kelli came to visit. Since the weather was sunny and warm and it did not seem right to put guests to work doing such mundane things as chopping down thistles or watching while we dispatched pigs. So instead we had a lazy day. It was a good day of sitting on the front porch, basking in the sunshine while listening to talk of days gone by. Sometimes one just needs a slow day like that. A day when once chores are done, one sits at peace with a cup of tea or coffee in hand enjoying chatting away with your visiting company. Yes, it was a good day. Times like this make you realise how important family is.
With all the hustle and bustle of daily life, sometimes it is good to unplug and unwind, I wish more people would! These days, that often ever-present electronic device of a fancy cell phone seems to be in everyone’s hands frequently taking precedence over good old face-to-face conversations. It appears hard for some folk to lay that device down or, heaven forbid, to switch it off! To not have the temptation to glance at it with unconscious frequency. I wonder how folks would cope if suddenly out of the blue an event caused all the fancy phones and computers to go dead as a doornail for a week? Wow! The art of good conversation might resurface again!
Maybe that was why it was so enjoyable yesterday to see Darrell and his children just sitting on the front porch, talking and joshing each other about events from the past. The sun was warm, and a slight breeze made the moment perfect, a snapshot in time that required no camera to capture. More days like this are needed… for everyone.
Looking out the window while my second cup of tea is on the brew, the trees are bathed in the golden light of a rising sun. There is not even the hint of a breeze, that moment in the early part of a day when all is still. The doves are calling to one another, the young roosters crows are a strident sound that breaks the stillness momentarily but also makes one appreciate the peace when they finally cease and desist! The coffee pot burbles and gurgles, filling the front room with that delicious smell that will soon have Darrell awake and coming down the hallway. As we sit side by side, him with a fresh cup of coffee, me with my mug of tea, we enjoy our morning ritual of welcoming a new day.
Soon, Andy, Terresa and Kelli will bestir themselves and come down to the house. Breakfast will be made, and all too soon it will be time for them to say their bye-byes and head off back to the hustle and bustle of a hectic city life. Tomorrow, after a weekend of company it will be back to farm work as usual for Darrell and I. We will be up and about early, for it is pig dispatching day. Later, when dispatching is done and the pigs are residing in the cooler, we will take the time to sit on the front porch together, enjoying the peace and quiet that surrounds us.
As our eyes stray towards the garden plot Darrell worked up the other day, the freshly tilled earth calls to us, just begging to be planted. “I think I’ll put some corn seed on to soak” Darrell will say. I will nod and reply “Good idea!” Once again, we will sit in companionable silence, sipping a cool drink after the morning’s work, contemplating what we will plant where for the coming growing season. The days are getting longer, the sun’s warmth is welcome and each day a blessing. It was wonderful having family visit, wish they would come more often, yet the moments spent just sitting in peace and companionship beside my dearest on our front porch are moments in time I cherish.
