One Perfect Day

Three days away for reading and retreat yields one perfect day. No screens, no television, no news of the outside world ~ just the susurration of the wind in the trees and of deer foraging on the ground. There was a doe with three older fawns in the morning, and later in the day a pair of does grazed just beyond the screened porch on which I sat. There were birds in flight and birds singing; chipmunks scurried on the ground, stopping only to look around for a strange sound. That was probably me. 

I came to read, and for much of the morning I read the nature around me. Listened. Watched. Caught smells on the air, the feel of the breeze on my skin. In the afternoon I read books. Three of them. Finished one, got a good start on the others. I left one on the porch and two in other places around the cabin. I moved from place to place and picked up what was there and read another chapter. 

The evening winds down. Dinner has long been eaten and the dishes washed. I've packed a few things since I check out at Noon. I have the whole morning before I have to go and will spend time reading the river after I drive down the mountain to get the road back to town. I'll take that road back up the mountain to the top of the ridge before going back down the mountain to spend some time in the artsy little town in the valley. The road winds lazily in some places, sharply in others. 

Days like today seem to stretch out forever. Stillness flows into timelessness. Connecting with the breath, a sense of forever in a single moment. I promise myself that I will carry this into tomorrow, so that there is no rush, no frenzied packing and loading and moving from one thing to the next. Seamless movement of one moment flowing into another. 

A Hundred Days of Happiness is a daily writing practice that opens a landscape of discovery into my own human experience.

Katherine Cartwright has been blogging since 2012, and each year brings new wonders. She asks big questions of the small things in life..