My day off did end at Shoreline, in this irresistible January warmth. (Many years it’s heartbreaking, sure to be nothing but false promises before winter swoops down again and closes us tightly inside for gray and dismal months.) I had it mostly to myself: sailboards stacked along the winter lake, and kayaks overturned in even rows on the dry grass.
I watched a young man under blue umbrellas at the lakeside café with a pile of books, studying somehow intently with the lake sparkle beyond him. Erasing, correcting, studying algebra or whatever. I remember puzzling out the equations, and studying the French chateaux—Amboise, Chenonceaux, Cheverny; the only geography that interested me in school. I was envious that he was so lost in his learning, yet sitting in that perfect locale.
I watched a young man under blue umbrellas at the lakeside café with a pile of books, studying somehow intently with the lake sparkle beyond him. Erasing, correcting, studying algebra or whatever. I remember puzzling out the equations, and studying the French chateaux—Amboise, Chenonceaux, Cheverny; the only geography that interested me in school. I was envious that he was so lost in his learning, yet sitting in that perfect locale.
And envious too of the delighted absorption of a pair of two-year-old twins chasing after Canada geese.
image: Christie B. Cochrell, Shorebird and Foam
I love your last sentence, where you say "a pair of two-year old twins"!
ReplyDeleteIt is a pleasure, reading your posts, to find that there's someone else, out there, who knows how to cherish and treasure the small things in life. I believe the particular is the only key to the universal.
Visiting your blog gives me a sense of comfort and peace. I added it to my list of favorite blogs!
Thanks so much, Jay; I'm honored. Only I'm without words today--deadened by too many piles of paperwork that offer no sustenance or light. Soon I'll get back to reading descriptions that make me happy, like yours. Have you looked at Slow Love Life, too?
DeleteI gave it a quick look just now, but I'll read more carefully in the next days. But I liked it a lot at first sight.
DeletePaperwork. I know, oh I know what you mean.
May I ask you, do you take the pictures you post?
Look forward to having you over on my blog!
I use my own photos whenever possible. I took up photography at one point when words were failing me. It's always a restorative thing, to wander with my camera and see the world through a close-up lens. But sometimes I need something for the blog that I don't have or can't easily get, or I find an image that's too lovely not to borrow. I try to use Wikimedia Commons so I don't have to feel guilty about copyrights, but I do in any case always try to do the ethical thing and give credit to the photographer. Though I don't mind if people in turn borrow my photos. The Web has done strange things to our sense of possession...
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