James (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} miss_mandalay) wrote,@ 2008-04-15 11:24:00 |
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Late April in Arizona
I went outside today after I finished a very early shift at work. The air was already warm and a gentle breeze was blowing. I could tell it was going to be extra warm today, but not the awful hotness that will be the norm for most of this summer.
The weather during the last two weeks in April always reminds me of the afternoons of my childhood when I came home from school and sat by the pool with my mother. Although when I say childhood it probably makes folks think of me as, well, as child, I would say that this was a ritual of ours from the time I was 5 until I left the house to go to college. While my mother and I had a long history of not getting along, I remember these afternoons fondly. Swimming season began in late April. When Mom was sitting by the pool she was usually wearing her swimsuit and a big floppy straw hat, holding a glass of ice tea as she sat in a deck chair or floated on a raft in the pool. I'd come say hello when I got home from school and she would tell me to go put on my swimsuit and come out to sit with her.
Most days I would go put on my swimsuit and join her poolside. In my later teenage years, I would usually grab that week's issue of TIME magazine and bring it out to read while we laid in the sun. It was typically late enough in the day (at least after 4pm) so that you never had to worry about sunblock--the sun was already starting to sink into the west, creeping towards our house and our palm trees. We would sit out for a few hours until the sun was gone or until we got hungry and thought it was time to get dinner started.
The things I remember best about these afternoons is that they were so relaxed. I wasn't stressed about work or about school. I'm sure I had homework to do on many of those days and work (when I was a camp counselor during the summers) wasn't always stress free, but I didn't have the levels of stress that I am now familiar with as an adult. When I was sitting by that pool, I had the ability to let it all go.
I remember how good that felt on days like today. Goodness knows you can't go back, and with the crazy stress of adulthood comes much joy. But when I feel the sun on my skin like I did this morning, I can almost hear the ice clinking in my mom's ice tea glass as the wind chimes sound on my parents old back porch.
Off to do stuff.
Cheers.
I went outside today after I finished a very early shift at work. The air was already warm and a gentle breeze was blowing. I could tell it was going to be extra warm today, but not the awful hotness that will be the norm for most of this summer.
The weather during the last two weeks in April always reminds me of the afternoons of my childhood when I came home from school and sat by the pool with my mother. Although when I say childhood it probably makes folks think of me as, well, as child, I would say that this was a ritual of ours from the time I was 5 until I left the house to go to college. While my mother and I had a long history of not getting along, I remember these afternoons fondly. Swimming season began in late April. When Mom was sitting by the pool she was usually wearing her swimsuit and a big floppy straw hat, holding a glass of ice tea as she sat in a deck chair or floated on a raft in the pool. I'd come say hello when I got home from school and she would tell me to go put on my swimsuit and come out to sit with her.
Most days I would go put on my swimsuit and join her poolside. In my later teenage years, I would usually grab that week's issue of TIME magazine and bring it out to read while we laid in the sun. It was typically late enough in the day (at least after 4pm) so that you never had to worry about sunblock--the sun was already starting to sink into the west, creeping towards our house and our palm trees. We would sit out for a few hours until the sun was gone or until we got hungry and thought it was time to get dinner started.
The things I remember best about these afternoons is that they were so relaxed. I wasn't stressed about work or about school. I'm sure I had homework to do on many of those days and work (when I was a camp counselor during the summers) wasn't always stress free, but I didn't have the levels of stress that I am now familiar with as an adult. When I was sitting by that pool, I had the ability to let it all go.
I remember how good that felt on days like today. Goodness knows you can't go back, and with the crazy stress of adulthood comes much joy. But when I feel the sun on my skin like I did this morning, I can almost hear the ice clinking in my mom's ice tea glass as the wind chimes sound on my parents old back porch.
Off to do stuff.
Cheers.
