Observations On A Day

What did I learn today?

This morning was a dry-out time from two days of heavy rain. I watched the grasses take a deep breath and push the lingering and clinging drops from the tips of their blades.

The flowers too said, “enough,” no more can we take. Shower after heavy shower peppered their blossoms till pieces and petals decorated the surrounding ground. A nearby plum tree lost hundreds of fledging plums pelted off their stems from the rain. I will miss their purple sweetness come fall.

I learned that if you follow directions explicitly, you would be successful in reconfiguring a computer application to work. It’s probably the first time that’s happened for me. I use to think that if I just did this, then that would happen. It didn’t! Somebody wrote the directions for a reason. Why did it take me some sixty-five plus years to get it?

Later in the day, after school was out, I watched some neighborhood children play on the street and on my lawn. There were three boys and a little girl. The oldest of the boys was eleven, the other boys were nine and eight and the girl was around six or seven. You wouldn’t know it. She was in on the play as aggressively as the boys, wrestling, chasing, tackling and laughing as much as anyone.

Watching that, I was also talking with my wife about the feminine component in play and work and how it has changed in fifty years. I acknowledged that each of us to be complete must honor in the other their attributes and genetics. As a man, I must acknowledge the feminine within me and women must acknowledge the masculine within themselves and when that happens we have a whole new understanding between the sexes; an equality that has been missing for generations.

Then, as the children moved away to other lawns and play and as a complete surprise, the clouds moved aside and for just a moment my porch was lit with the power of a klieg light 93-million miles away.

There I was bathed in a western setting golden bright of exploding hydrogen and helium and the penetrating warmth of fusion so far away.

Neighbors walked by and pleasantries were exchanged.

Shortly the Sun set and I moved inside. My classes for the day were done. I had a lot the think about.