Have you ever had one of those mornings when the light is just right and the weather is just right and your heart is just right? Yeah, one of those arisings when things seem to flow and the delight of living makes your step light and your soul lofty. The dawn of the day is so “there” that, hey, even the coffee smells better.
When the season begins to call itself “Fall,” that’s the time when I have a chance to partake of one those magic morns. The air is shifting and my vision of things seems to go right along for the ride. On my way to work, images sing, delight, and recall.
A child shoots his bike past a sprinkler arcing water in a sun-shot rainbow. Memories of my own childhood waft across my eyes. Those were times of two-wheeled freedom as I pedaled windswept to school, to a friend’s, or simply on an adventure to see where I would end up.
A hand-clasped couple is walking toward the crosswalk. Caught up in the oneness of their two, they lean into one another with natural grace and the “wholeness” of them. I remember so clearly and softly the wonder of my own first love. A smile of recognition and rightness graces my face as I pass. A call to that past I have not visited in a long time is heard as well.
At a stoplight, I notice a young woman squinting into the rearview mirror, applying lipstick to anxiously pursed lips. A crease of concern mars an unlined forehead. What meeting or event, man or woman, is she prepping for? My heart goes out to her and to the once-young me that sat red-stop-light worried about an upcoming career move or moment. I sigh in just-realized relief that this type of anxiety is no longer part and parcel of my days.
A landscape truck passes me. The men in back are rolling with the road and laughing as they share cups of coffee. I notice one man who sits apart and alone. He is quiet in his contemplation of the street passing beneath his work-shod feet. I wonder what thoughts accompany him on his journey to that yard or those trees where he will work today. Does he think of children, a wife or simply another cup of coffee?
A young mother holds the hand of her preschool child as they walk to the happy door of the daycare building on a church-crossed sidewalk. Mother and child smile at one another. There is quiet trust and boundless love passed between look-alike smiles. I remember a once-small hand nestled in my own, as years ago I too passed my little one’s care into so-capable hands before scooting off to a busy-full day.
An elderly man gently walks his dog; the dog so comfortably knows the man’s pace and destination. They are a matched-gait pair. I smile at the resemblance between pet and person. There is a rightness to their walk; a knowing that all is as it should be in their world. A peaceful and forward-flung recognition of my own future comes to me as they pass by.
I am delighted and delighting in just one of those mornings.
Tags: age gracefully, Reaching out as we age, robin korth, Understanding age
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 at 10:27 am and is filed under IOA Stories, Newsletter, Robin's Insights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
