Sepia

This is my very favorite weather.

It is both hot and windy. As I sit here on my deck I close my eyes and let my other senses take over. The sun heats my skin like holding an open palm near a flame. If I turn my face I can see the bright sunlight, golden through my closed lids. The breeze is warm. It feels soft, gentle and somehow nostalgic. It doesn't bring a chill, like a spring breeze, but it keeps the heat of the sun from becoming overbearing.

The wind blows through a neighboring oak tree. The leaves swish and rustle and a nearby wind chime sings. The little waterfall in my backyard pond bubbles happily and a myriad of birds call to one another. In the distance there is the hum of a passing car and perhaps a distant lawn mower.

My metal deck chairs are warm (almost hot) to the touch and I smile thinking of the hours they've spent soaking up today's sunlight. How many days have these chairs sat frigid and wet under a moody gray sky?

I hear the train and a neighbor's voice. I think of my grandmother. When she was my age it was 1941 and I wonder if a hot, summer afternoon didn't feel the same then. Maybe the cars were fewer, and perhaps louder. And I'm quite sure she didn't have a string of electric lights, small, clear glass bulbs, strung around the railing of her deck. But the birds and the train... the heat of the sun and rush of the water... the wind chimes and the endless blue of the sky... were these not the same?? I smell warm wood and the sweet freshness of the river nearby. I bat away a pesky fly. Did she ever sit and close her eyes and drink it in? I hope she did.

Often when I imagine times gone by I picture the world in sepia tones. But as I sit here on my deck today, I realize that her world was as bright and colorful as mine, and to her nothing about life was old-fashioned. She couldn't see how the world was going to drastically change, just like I can't. I don't see these days, my life, as being the "olden days", or primitive in any way. But my grandchildren likely will. They will chuckle at my laptop and cell phone and marvel at my string of string of electric bulbs that surround my deck. My music will be played on the "oldies" station and the height of our technology will be like cassette tapes and rotary-dial phones.

So before I return to my kitchen... the dirty dishes, and Costco groceries that I've yet to put away. Before I retreat into the air-conditioned, plug my computer back in and set my iPod to my favorite playlist. Before I begin the tasks that I need to finish to prepare for my daughter's birthday party tomorrow... maybe I could just close my eyes one more time. Feel the warm summer wind, listen to the music of the birds and the waterfall, breathe deep the fragrance of today... MY today... and perhaps see my world, for a moment, in sepia tones.