From the book of which you are perhaps growing tired by now, my weekend assignment choice, Dinner etc. (if you've just arrived here from outer space or elsewhere, see previous several entries), a quote. Because it is also a large clue into who I am, and because it is just so lovely. It is from the journal of the mother in the story, Pearl. She is a difficult woman, but not without cause. This entry from the largely mundane entries from the journal she kept in younger years expresses feelings I have had under much the same circumstances.
"Early this morning, I went out behind the house to weed. Was kneeling in the dirt by the stable with my pinafore a mess and the perspiration rolling down my back, wiped my face on my sleeve, reached for the trowel, and all at once thought, Why I believe that at just this moment I am absolutely happy...The Bedloe girl's piano scales were floating out her window, and a bottle fly was buzzing in the grass, and I saw that I was kneeling on such a beautiful green little planet. I don't care what else might come about, I have had this moment. It belongs to me." (Page 277, hardcover first edition)
I myself have just now come in from several hours of work in the yard: mowing, trimming bushes, weeding, chopping up stuff for the compost. It's the best therapy there is. I don't wear a pinafore, but my jeans are a mess and perspiration ran down my back - but I was happy, entirely engaged in what I was doing. The herbs smell so good, the daylilies - orange, red, yellow - are blooming wildly, the cardinals, robins, catbirds, mockingbirds, finches and sparrows keep me joyful company. Dear beautiful green little planet!!
2 comments:
Those are the moments to live for.
yes, cynthia, they are - and there's no way to plan for them. they are gifts, and arrive unexpectedly. what they call in New Orleans, lagniappe.
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