Porches

Things have changed a lot during the last couple of years; some good, some not so good (e.g. a daughter’s wedding, a hurricane disaster, the loss of a pet)  but no change has been as dramatic (for me, that is) as the change of the last 5 months. Life, to wit, has been kind of a blur of activity for as long as I can remember where I blissfully involved myself in all kinds of righteous and dutiful and honorable activities so that I could consider myself a “productive member of society” even though I have not worked outside the home for many years. (A plight of the stay-at-home mom!) Volunteering my time in many capacities gave me something to do, made me feel important, and gave me opportunities to help others. 

Now that we are in COVID Isolation, even though things have been taken away, something new has been added: 

TIME 

because volunteer work apparently is "non-essential".  

So....... I have now gone from filling my time with meaningful endeavors to doing absolutely meaningless things to fill the empty spaces of time. Yes, I will admit to binge-watching Netflix in the early days of Isolation. I have also become literally addicted to reading (books are faithful companions these days). With the libraries closed and then when I became fully aware of  how much I was spending on new books/Ebooks, I decided to begin  rereading old books out of my own library (what a “novel" idea!). I have been rereading all my John Grisham book collection and found that I had forgotten most of the stories and it’s like reading them again for the first time! What a great story spinner he is! I love his books!

I have also cooked up a storm which has been delightfully fun  since the Doer and I haven’t had the temptation to eat out as often as we used to.  I’ve been digging out old recipes that I used way back when we were first married and when the kids were little; a treasure trove of recipes given to me by old friends and when I pull them out I have the most incredible memories of those friends and gatherings in the old days and, oh..... how grateful I am for those sweet memories! 

What I have been doing the most this summer, is sitting on porches. Our home has quite a variety of outside sitting areas. We have a front porch with 4 rocking chairs looking out over an old barnyard, a back patio for grilling and eating, a covered side porch, and a sunroom. The house is 80 years old and additions over the years have resulted in some outside spaces which I dearly love. Therefore the weather, the activity, the time of day, and time of year determine where we sit when outside. 

I have been sitting outside a lot on my porches and 

TIME has given me a new pair of glasses!  

I don’t mean literal glasses; but a new set of eyes, so to speak. I notice things more because I have TIME to SEE. I don’t think things have changed and I don’t think my eyes have changed (if anything for the worse because of my age!) but my vision of things has changed. The skies this summer have taken on a hue of such a brilliant blue that I really can’t find words to describe it. I don’t think the skies are any clearer, I think my vision is. The mountains surrounding our home also seem to be a deeper shade of blue/green than I’ve noticed before and the color varies throughout the day with the position of the sun; ombre mountains, gray to blue-green to blue, undulating shadows as sun rises and sun sets.

My purple butterfly bushes are teeming with, guess what? Butterflies! And moths and bees and, have you ever seen a Hummingbird Moth? Fascinating creatures! I thought at first they were baby hummingbirds until I looked more closely and saw that they’re actually insects but  look like tiny birds as they flit from flower to flower getting drunk on nectar and pollinating our gardens. The Crepe Myrtles this year are magenta pink and when the petals fall, they sprinkle pink snow on the ground.

We’ve had lots of rain this spring and therefore, the vegetation is as green as I’ve ever seen in late July. Rich, lush emerald green like Ireland (not that I've been there but I have seen pictures!)

At this moment, I’m watching a spider in a web between 2 azalea shrubs. I only see it because the sun is currently shining on it and light is reflecting off its silver web.

A mourning dove has made her nest above my head on the covered side porch. She doesn’t like me sitting here. She tries to return from feeding (I guess. I don’t know what else she’s doing) and when she sees me sitting here near her nest, she startles, perches close by on a garden trellis, and stares at me for the longest time. She soon realizes I’m harmless because she eventually gets up the nerve to fly into her nest where she settles in until another meal. In the mornings, I sit in the old sunroom off this porch and I hear her mournful cooing every day. My cat is always with me; she could be fussing at the cat!

While COVID has eliminated social contact and activity, which has been challenging to say the least, it has given me the ability to see things more clearly, to get to know myself a bit better (the good, the bad, and the ugly!) and to appreciate my surroundings in nature. If you read my blog regularly, you know how beautiful Ocracoke Island is to me; the ocean, the sound, the marsh, the birdlife, the sunsets, etc. My own home surrounding is beautiful, too, and I’m blessed beyond belief to live on this planet no matter what’s going on around us.

So maybe volunteer work isn’t essential anymore, but learning to “see” is. I’m glad to have an opportunity in the loneliness of Isolation/Distancing to draw close to my Creator and His phenomenal creation!

No photos this time. Yes, I know, no blog is complete without them but I want my readers to use their imagination and “vision” to SEE beauty all around them.