With Two Cats in the Yard…

I did a little snooping yesterday…I checked out my neighbor’s house…now…don’t go calling the police…I didn’t jimmy the locks…or even peep in the windows…I just found it online…yep…it’s for sale…so…I found the listing and took the virtual tour…

What I found was…it is a lovely house…filled with bold colors…striking…beautiful…but…I wouldn’t want to live there…

I want to live in my house…

I love my house…I loved it from the moment I first walked in…with one exception…the walls were camel…the entire interior with the exception of the guest bath…was painted the same color…and…while…it was a nice color…very tasteful…very sophisticated…

It just wasn’t me…

For me…color is important…I can handle plain white walls…but…beige…AKA…camel…depresses me…I knew I could live here about six months…if that…before I’d be depressed…if I left things the way they were…

I’m a pastel kind of girl…

I immediately…began planning the colors I would paint…the living room…dining room…would be a pale turquoise…bordering on blue…the color that reminds me of water…the master bed and bath…a pale coral…almost pink…the color that reminds me of sunrise…the rest of the rooms…would remain camel…honestly…that only left the kitchen…guest room…and hall…I could live with that much…

I was delighted with my choices…and amused…when a neighbor came over as I was holding up paint swatches…and proceeded to inform me…that I wouldn’t like the color…which I thought was pretty funny…considering it was the same exact color I’d been living with for two years prior and loved…I must have given her a funny look…I don’t think she’s been back…

She wasn’t the only one…when I’d show the house to someone…and tell them I was going to paint…even if they didn’t object to the colors I’d chosen…they’d ask why…it was such a lovely color already…so neutral…so chic…so…them…

I’m not sure they understood…they also didn’t sign the mortgage…

So…here I am…not neutral…not sophisticated…not chic…but…I love my house…I love the colors that I chose…they suit me…they make me happy…

And…believe it or not…Bertha…says…it’s part of living my truth…honoring who I am…honoring what I need…who would have thought…paint color…could do all that…

Jane

Morning Has Broken…

I love being outside in the morning…as the sun comes up…as birds are busily being the early ones…I sit in my granny’s rocker…drink coffee…and bask…listening to the sounds…letting my eyes adjust to the dusky dawn…getting ever brighter…then…feeling the first rays of sunshine…on my face…

I walked out this morning…it is still cool…too cool to settle into her chair…even with a throw…but…I hear the songs of the birds…and I know…that soon…very…soon…my contemplation time…will be amongst the birds…and squirrels…and…I can wait…a few more days…

Some people wonder…why I get up so early…even in the summer…and this is why…I suppose like the birds…I want to be the early one…

Jane

A Few Clouds Shy of a Sunrise…

I like to consider myself to be a connoisseur of fine sunrises…I have sampled some of the quainter vintages…cruise ship in the Mexican Caribbean…Red Rock Country, Arizona…but…my all-time favorite ones are those on the Redneck Caribbean…that’s right…Gulf Shores, AL.

Fine wine…requires the perfect balance of ingredients…it might be a wisp of cherries…and a velvety undertone of oak…

For sunrise…it’s simple…clouds…it take just the right amount of clouds…too few…and the sky just kind of turns light…too many…and…it just doesn’t show up…

Location matters…most discerning palates can tell the difference between French, California and Alabama grapes…some locations just have it…and some of them don’t…

Same with the sunrise…my current house…ain’t got it…love the house…but it just isn’t situated to give me glorious sunrises…but the boardwalk at Main Beach in Gulf Shores…primo…

When I lived there…I would walk at the beach most mornings before work…so I could enjoy the sunrise…there were usually just enough clouds…pale pink would start in the east…and then make its way across the entire beach to the west…getting brighter and deeper…until it reached the crescendo that I called…clouds on fire…

As you can imagine…there weren’t a tremendous amount of people sharing the boardwalk with me at that time of day…especially off-season…so I usually kept my safety radar on as I walked along…

One morning…I spotted him…sitting on a bench…facing the Gulf…middle-aged…balding…ponytail…looking like he’d frequented a few too many love-ins in the ‘60s…if you know what I mean…so you understand my hesitancy when he stopped me to ask when it would be sunrise…I was heading east…looking at a glorious sky…and said…any minute now…and hurried on…

The next day…you guessed it…he was there again…same scenario…he’s looking at the Gulf…asks me when it will be sunrise…I look at the beautiful eastern sky…and say…any minute now…

Third day…same thing…he’s sitting in the same place…looking at the Gulf…which is due south…and something about the way he asked this time…I realized that he was waiting for the sun to come up over the water…he hadn’t seen a single sunrise in three days…

You’ll be proud of me…I was very polite…did not roll my eyes…or laugh…but I did point to the eastern clouds of glory…and tell him that the sunrise was there…

But…I do remember thinking…or maybe it was Bertha whispering in my ear…it was there all along…you just needed to turn your head…and then I wondered…or maybe she asked me…how often do I miss what I’m looking for…because I’m looking in the wrong direction…

Jane