I did today what I swore I would not do for the whole summer. I got up early.
I got up at the time my alarm goes off on school mornings-- 5:45 a.m.-- and I'd been awake long before that, having spent a tossy-turny night on a mattress that had been my parents'.
My parents' mattress was newer than ours, so after my mother went to the assisted living home, I brought it home. Bruce could sleep on a bed of nails, and convincing him to spend "what?!" on a "Sleep Number" bed just wasn't going to happen.
And maybe the mattress is not what's keeping me awake anyway. It could be hot flashes, or the cat that likes to groom my hair with her teeth several times a night, or Bruce's snoring, or . . . the mattress.
This morning I reminded myself of a kid who can't be dragged out of bed on school mornings, but is up bright and early for Saturday morning cartoons. I put on a sweatshirt against the unseasonable chill, and took my camera and went for a walk along the power lines just as the sun was drizzling her first honey rays on the treetops.
Apart from the fact that it was an hour well spent, and I'd do it again tomorrow, I could see myself veering into obsessiveness. Picture taking obsessiveness.
Everywhere I looked there was a scene crying, "Take me. Take me!" It was like bringing a camera into a classroom of eleven year-olds-- everything vied for my attention.
The sun pointed to some spots, others just drew my eye quietly. I saw caterpillars, dew drops, and sun-dappled leaves that I couldn't resist. There is so much beauty ready to be absorbed.
Later after a nap, well into the evening when the sun was slanting into the living room through the bay window, I sat and read in a comfy chair. At one point I stopped to stretch, holding my legs out straight in front of me.
That's when I knew I was obsessed for sure. I looked at my toes, backlit in the sun. I put my book down, and got the camera. My toes were a picture crying to be taken. Or maybe not, but I snapped the shot anyway. Okay. I snapped six shots of my backlit toes. I should probably get a pedicure, I now see.
I wonder why I never get obsessed with housework, but I'm sort of glad I don't. That would take away from my picture taking time.
Comments
(I'm definitely obsessive about picture-taking... I'll post some later, maybe)