Another Moment of Space
View from my back porch | June 2011
Yes, believe it or not, I had not one, but two moments of space (grace) last week.
The second moment happened late Thursday evening. We had friends over for our annual Water Gun and Potluck Party. This has become a tradition before we leave for the beach for the summer…we invite the boys’ friends over so they can chase each other all over the backyard with monster water guns. And the Moms get to hang out and chat and eat yummy food. Again, it was a wonderful day. It rained in the morning, but the rain took a break during the day until right after people left.
That night another storm came through. As I was getting ready to head to sleep, I realized that I had left my camera and camera bag out on the back porch. It was not in any danger of getting wet, but I did not want it sitting out all night in the humidity during the storm, so I went down to get it. Instead of coming right back inside, I took a moment to sit down in the rocking chair to enjoy the storm.
I sat there thinking about the day. About how even though I had gone through some spinning pre-party (realizing how much clutter there was, worried that the house was going to be a mess, wondering why I can’t be better at “cleaning as I go” etc) it honestly disappeared as soon as the first friend arrived and I truly relaxed and enjoyed everyone and everything. About how I honestly had not stressed about whether it was going to rain (truly realizing that I had absolutely no control over it!) and how much I appreciated the fact that the storm held off (I swear, I was almost giddy about it…both the fact that it had not rained and the fact that I had not stressed about it). About how nice it was to be able to enjoy the porch since I had finally cleaned it of the pollen that had accumulated and hung the hammock swing in preparation for the party.
And I then I started taking in the beauty of the night.
The sound of the rain on the porch roof.
The thunder. The blinding lightening.
The smell of the summer storm.
The peace.
The quiet.
The very intense claps of thunder.
The darkness.
And I relaxed. And breathed.
Then I noticed there were tiny bits of light flitting here and there. I was surprised to realize that they were fireflies out in that thundering downpour. I wondered why they were still out and why they had not taken shelter during the storm. I marveled at how they seemed to dance between the raindrops (they must have been because the rain was coming down in sheets.)
It hit me how easy it would have been to have just gone back inside and up to bed and to have missed all that was going on during this storm. How grateful I was that I just happened to remember my camera and just happened to look around and actually notice the storm and just happened to have a wonderfully welcoming back porch on which to sit and just happened to realize it would be good for me to take a moment and sit and appreciate.
And breathe.
