The windows are open; a warm breeze floats through the screen and caresses my cheeks. Sunshine brightens patches of my orange bedsheets and makes a heating pad for my aching back. I feel old today. Probably because I am allowing myself to. Today I do not need to greet visitors with a smile and pleasant conversation. I can curl inward and feel the aches I have acquired in living. I have a living history, too. It involves struggle and fortitude and being foreign… like those German immigrants I talk about at work…though it is very different in its particulars.
The art of self-comforting. Breathing. Slowing down. Searching for health in the interior of being. Acknowledging tender spots. Bathing them in warmth. And perhaps in tears. I feel the love of my children, my husband, and of summer, wafting around me like a vapor of dreams in dappled green light. I hang on by my toes to a branch of substance, and rock myself to sleep.
Death Valley, CA, last April. Photographed on the trail to Darwin Falls.
scillagrace 
Beautiful Scilla and timely for me.. I have just heard that my mother is unwell in hospital 4 hours away and I now have to have contact again with my sister from whom I have been extranged for over 30 years; seeing her only once at my brothers funeral 7 years ago ( which was a disastrous meeting) … difficult times are ahead and I could do with some inner peace and self comforting..
Of course I mean estranged.. sorry I’m tired..
🙂
Oh my dear. Wrap those wings around you in a tight hug, gathering your inner strength close around your heart. And all will be well, every manner of thing. Sending you my love 🙂
Thank you Scilla.. I appreciate your thoughts..
Wow, what a wonderful shot!
He was a wonderful surprise, hanging in the breeze!