Another day

My husband sent me this picture a little while ago, noting that the peony he thought was done wasn't, and that waiting one more day yielded this even more gorgeous view.

I've always found a lot of comfort in the axiom that the best thing that God created was one day after another. The way I see it, a new day offers the possibility of change, of breaking with the past and reinventing oneself anew. As someone who's reinvented herself a few times (my husband says I'm at least on my fourth incarnation in this lifetime), I really appreciate having another day.

Today I've been in the apartment in the woods with the dogs, who have been snoozing happily while I get ready for a law and society seminar that I'll attend for the next two days. Then it's off to Oregon to deliver the Monster to my advisor.

The woods have been so lovely today that I turned off my old, ugly, yet trusty, boom box, which (with the help of a re-purposed metal clothes hanger) actually receives the distant radio waves of the humongous university's classical music station. Most radios can't get that station here because of the many trees towering around and over the small apartment complex.

Instead, I've been content with listening to the lovely sounds of the woods, including the different calls and chirps of birds, the rustle of leaves disturbed by the rummaging squirrels and the chipmunks, and the general silence that settles over the afternoons here, like a light shawl, when my small college on the hill isn't in session.

After doing my reading, I took a break for a "wee nap," as my lovely pregnant friend would say, something I haven't done for what seems like forever.

All in all, this has felt like a slow day, not at all like a Monday, and definitely like the holiday it commemorates. But, unlike most people today, I haven't been to any family gatherings or cookouts with friends or amusement parks.

For me, this has been another day, yet I've loved the rarity of its quietude and simple enjoyment. It's been a welcome, unexciting day at home, in this, my other home near the wondrous wonderful woods.