My Blue’s day started early. He was up with the birds and headed straight out to the garden to look up at the sky. Yesterday, his Granny slipped a magazine along the pew for him to read during the sermon and alongside the word search and the jokes, he found a cloud chart. Which meant that this morning he was keen to come up with a weather report before any of the rest of us arrived at the breakfast table. Conclusion? Not a cloud in the sky. Good day ahead.
And it has been a good day. A bit of a quiet day after a full weekend of family and celebrations. We arrived in Ottawa last Thursday evening after a long day of travel. The rest of the family – aunties, uncles and all those much-longed-for cousins – came by on Saturday for a long lunchtime barbeque. In the evening, we had another party, this time with friends with a marvellous backyard, gorgeous pulled pork sandwiches and open, generous hearts. Then home again to tuck the kids into bed before the Spouse and I headed downtown for a quiet drink with friends in our old neighbourhood pub. Good full days and happy.
Today, we played in the garden all morning. We set up a cable car with little wicker baskets so that small lions and dollies could go for a ride. We ran through the sprinkler and followed the stepping stones past the lilies and through the ferns. We took down the crinkled bunting left over from the weekend’s party, folding it up for another party, another day. Then we got out the paints and Plum painted trains right across Canada all pink – or that’s how he described it with deep and serious joy. He scrubbed his brush into the paper and the paints all blended together, pinks and greens and deep purples, and the leaves above our heads were a thick green between us and that blue and cloudless sky.
Somewhere in the middle of the day, we had some quiet time with books and I picked up Walking on Water, by Madeleine L’Engle where I found two quotations on the same page – one from e.e.cummings and one from the Psalmist:
“I who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday, this is the birth
day of life and love and wings, and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth.
Now the eyes of my ears are awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened.”
“The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork.”
With these poets and my children, too, I want to sing of the beauty of the day we’ve had. Rejoice and sing that God is good. Not a cloud in the sky.
Tonight, the house is quiet. Plum is sleeping, washed clean now and relaxed. Beangirl is tucked up in bed beside me, finding this July evening too hot for sleeping so instead she is contentedly working her way through an old collection of comics. And I’m up with my scribbling, piecing together my thoughts from the day and other places. But tonight, I’m also waiting for the phone to ring. Blue is away from me tonight. He has gone to spend the night at my sister’s house but he wants to check in before he falls asleep. I’m glad he will. I want to see him again before I sleep. I want to remind him about our good day and to bless him with good night. Outside the window, there are clouds in the sky now and I think there will be a little rain overnight which will hopefully cool things down a little. I wonder if he’s seen them, too.
