When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house…

Ok, I’m not really going to recite the entire first chapter of The Outsiders for you.  I’m not.  Really.  I’m not even at nor have I been to recently – a movie house.  I won’t tell you that this is one of the first books, I ever remember loving.  I won’t tell you how much I just wanted to save Pony or how hard I cried over Johnny.  I won’t mention any of that.  Or how the start of my post today made it pop into my head and I had to go get it off the shelf and thumb it real quick.  In fact I won’t even mention it again.

But I did step out into the early morning sunlight from the darkness of my dining room, holding a warm cup of coffee just hoping to watch the sun come up.  Is it sad that one must slip outside for a moment of peace and quiet, just to enjoy the sun coming up on a beautiful and quite chilly Sunday morn.  Or is it more sad that one slept in, much past sunrise?  Or more sad still that the moment of quiet was more like – a moment of listening to my neighbors little yappy dogs, and my other neighbors argue, and my other neighbor tweak his dirtbike…  vrooom vroooooommmm growllllllllllllllllllllll….

I sat outside this morning, in my hot pink “pimp” slippers, and the sounds around me really got me thinking about when I was a kid.  and then of course my moment alone was over, and there were pugs on my feet, children speaking in my ears, and a man sitting at my side telling me about his day.  My moment in the sun was done.  I gripped my favorite coffee mug with both hands, hoping to steal a little warmth, and I smiled as I listened to all the sounds and stories that were flowing toward me.  But secretly my mind had begun to wander off to a time that, as best as I can recall, was SO different from the lives we live today. 

When I was a kid, you didn’t have neighbors watching your every move.  Or people across the street with their radios blaring at 8am on a Sunday.  ITS SUNDAY !  Turn that shit off! 

When I was a kid, I was blessed with not having a lot.  We didn’t have a lot of neighbors.  Shoot no, we lived way out in the country.  Out on hwy 66 in Union County, KY if you want specifics. LOL.  We didn’t have neighbors, parties, loud barking dogs, roaring motorcycle motors, yelling, or beer cans tossed in our yard (unless it was by us).  Nope, I was so deprived.  We only had crickets, and kitties, and bird chirps. 

Back in my day, we had to be in the house at a decent hour.   We couldn’t be out running at all hours of the night.  We had to get by with moonlight and only the stars.  There were no street lights to light the way for us when I was a  kid.  No sir.   Not that there was anywhere to go anyway.  Unless you count cow tippin’ on the neighbors property, or looking of arrow heads down in the creek.

There was no eating out when I was wee either.  Back then, we had to actually sit – at a TABLE – and talk to our family.  Can you imagine?

I wonder if my kids would have liked the country.  Probably not, it’s not the time we live in.  I am pretty sure I miss it though.  Life just moves so fast.  I think I would rather enjoy a bit of “being out of touch”.

Ok, I obviously lied.  I can’t bring up Pony-boy and the Outsiders and SE Hinton; and not tell you the one thing that makes me cry, every single time I see/hear it and I am blessed enough to recollect the first time I read it – and understood.

Nature’s First Green is Gold

Nature’s first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
~Robert Frost, The Yale Review, 1923

I hope today you find yourself to be blessed with the sight of friends, the sounds of laughter, the smells of home, and the flavor of love.  But mostly, I hope you just find yourself feeling whole.

I know I do.

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