One more time.......

I'm rushing around the house trying to get enough work done so that when the kids rush off the bus this afternoon, I won't feel a bit guilty sitting outside with them and drinking in the sunshine and breezes.

As i open the kitchen window, and rush of warm, sweet smelling air hits my face, and I'm transported back ......many many years ago, to a field, in Walpole N.H., and I see a little girl, freckles on her face, hair stuffed under a baseball hat, and her skinny bare knees green with grass stains.

I lived outside in my childhood, you couldn't keep me in, especially in the spring. All spring and summer, I roamed the alfalfa fields, and drank in the sweet smell, I played hide and seek with my brothers in the corn fields, cutting up our sun-burnt faces with the razor sharp leaves of the corn stalks. We hunted tadpoles and frogs in the endless creeks and ponds surrounding our house. I picked flowers all summer long, frolicked, ...yes, frolicked, for real, in fields of dandelions. Yellow fuzzy tops as far as the young tiny eye can see, perfect for rolling in and creating tunnels, and trying to not anger the equally fuzzy bumbly bees that were simply minding their own business and trying just as hard to avoid me. In late summer we picked giant leaves and grass cuttings, and in the streams we created with the hose, and dirt in the sides of our long semi-circle driveway, we built dams and fairy villages, even lego-scapes, and tried our best to thwart the poor ants attempts at simply living.

In the Spring though, i was on the hunt for one thing, Violets, my favorite flower in all the world. I love Roses almost as much, they are grand and beautiful in every color, and have so many variations, and are just regal and demand attention. I do love my roses, BUT, Violets, are like me .... at least I like to think so. :) They are simple, always the same, pretty, unassuming, and purple. My fave color, it stands for royalty. They are also shy, they hide in covered glens, under larger bushes, letting the Lilacs, and the roses get the sun, and the fame, and the immediate praise, but those who know where to look, will find these little gems just existing, happily in their little place on the planet.

Yes, I CAN make a metaphor out of anything! Just give me some time, I can make the most mundane thing look quite deep and mysterious! :D

I loved finding my violets, I used to imagine the faeries who danced on the leaves at dusk, and I never picked all of them, i left some for my tiny mystic friends. They are lovers of beauty too. My mother even had a few vases, just small enough for the first little bunch that I'd bring in, and she would set it on the kitchen window sill, and I'd keep it fresh as long as the lovelies were blooming.

Now I have spent laundry folding time thinking, and remembering, and writing, ahh well, that is what the sweet warm days of spring are for isn't it? Do you remember that feeling of laying on your back in the grass, with the "summer buzz" of insects and birds overhead, just staring up into the bright "September blue" sky, and thinking of all the things Life must hold, and how long it was going to take to grow up, and what on earth would I do with all the time I have today? The warmth of the sun beating down, just enough to keep you warm, and a breeze to keep it from being hot. The feeling of waking up there an hour later, the rested calm ....... ..... ...... I'd like one more childhood summer...... next time I see a genie, I think that will be my wish. :)