Friday Happiness




I was bereft of inspiration, and on top of that
I had to bring my little girl over to the pre-k
and leave her crying and
yelling "mommmmmmy...I want to stay with yoooooou"
and even though I completely recognized in her voice
and her carriage
a touch of the "putting on", of the slipping this costume of bereftness
over her purple dress, and trying on the whole idea of being lost
without me,
still,
I know her.
And she was and was not
feeling it.
I was feeling it.
I was hot and cloudy and hoping
that if I just scooped her up
and out of there
all would be ok.
But, alas,
I'm no spring chicken.
And I know that she will be ok,
and that I need to leave her.
So I went,
listening through the closed,
single paned windows,
as my little purple-dressed girl,
wailed inside.
::
I turned right instead of left,
and with my camera on the seat
next to me, like a puppy,
I drove to the one place I would always go,
given a chance.
And my puppy and I got out and went for a walk,
and bought some bread,
and took many, many pictures of flowers,
and vegetables and then on the way out,
pulled over in front of the "no parking" sign,
right next to the "electric fence" sign,
and looked and laughed at the geese, honking
at I don't know what. But they certainly all agreed
that one particular thing deserved
honking at. (And by the way, they are not all the same,
at all. They are all sorts of colors and with stripes even,
and some are definitely cuter than others. Something to do
with the placement of their eyes, I decided.
Although they all honk the same.)
And then one hit me on the head.
One acorn, and another and another-not all hitting me
on the head, but all over the place, and all different
and perfect, even though many of them lose their caps
when they fall from the tree.
I had the impulse to glue the caps back on.
Isn't that ridiculous?
Why do I always want to fix things
so that they are just so, again?
And scooping them up,
and meaning to take them home,
I felt that I had found some sort of treasure
and that the girl
who runs the childrens' programs,
(and who was very pregnant the last time I saw her,)
was going to stop me and say I couldn't have those acorns.
They need to stay here. They belong to the farm.
But she just smiled and waved, and called out "how are the girls?"
and drove away,
no doubt to pick up that baby of hers.
And so I turned back toward the car,
walked away from the geese,
with a handful of acorns,
and went back to the place from which I had come.
And picked up my smiling,
purple-dressed girl.
Inspiration found.
Enjoy the weekend. Thanks for reading.
tt
Labels: Friday Happiness, Tara





12 Comments:
Parks in no parking zone and steals acorns after theft of berries on 8/10/09 (see your post of said date). You're on quite a little crime spree.
Sincerely,
JM
hugs. don't acorns make everything better?
((hugs)) i'm sorry you both are having the tough time. acorns do help - they make me smile.
This was a lovely bit of writing.
It made my heart ache.
I am glad you found some inspiration.
...and it's friday. congratulations on surviving the week!
beth
ps: did you receive the article and recipe?
Oh Tara,
This is so beautiful. Fall has always been the season of beginnings for me, but I'm feeling a lot of endings, or perhaps more accurately, of transitions. They are so hard, and yet so beautiful and so inspiring.
Thanks for sharing.
xoxo Kathleen
I've been reading about your little one and it brings back so many memories of my little guy. Like the time he was in first grade and wouldn't let me drop him off in the loop (like we had been doing for three weeks!!). So I had to walk him in to his class and stay...still in my pajama bottoms! Now I'm lucky if I get a kiss as he gets out of the car. So hard on everyone. Be thankful it's the weekend!
i hope the weekend is gentle with you. big hugs.
Wow. I totally need to prepare myself for that day. She's not yet two (one of them is only 6 months), but I know the day is coming soon where I will have to turn and walk away from their wailing .. and that it will be the right thing to do.
Thanks for your post, prepping me.
Also, I took some similar acorn pics recently. Check out my photostream. :)
Have you ever thought of having an Etsy shop to sell your photos? I would love to have some as prints and cards...
Sigh. What a beautiful post.
I also love Stone Barns. It's a magical place.
My puppy has been at the Rye Camera Shop for almost two weeks now and I miss it. Apparently some sand caused the lens mount to break or some other man-made disaster.
I can't wait to come by and see the new installation. I'll bring acorns -- we have thousands in the yard.
Jill
I know that it is more than a week since you posted this but I just had to let you know how much this has touched me...the photos and the words...you are gifted indeed...
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