I want to write about the light and the sound right now. It is mid afternoon, early October. Cool enough to be wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt, warm enough to have bare feet and an open window. In other words, perfect.
I'm sitting in the dining room, though we never dine in here. The family room has become dining room number two since it has room for a larger table and it's a few steps closer to the kitchen. This room is more conducive to creating than eating, hence the scraps of paper littering the floor and the paper cutter sitting beside my laptop.
The sun streaming through the east facing window is warming my denim clad legs and illuminating the small plastic aquarium sitting on the windowsill. Two mature sea monkeys are swimming in frantic circles. I wonder if they need food. I honestly can't believe they're still alive.
Through the open window I can hear the high school band practice for tonight's homecoming game. The band knows a lot of Michael Jackson songs, 'cause you know they're bad, they're bad, you know it. The band takes a break and I swear I can hear, "hut, hut, hut". My daughter paces behind me, busily texting her friends, making plans to hang out and not watch football at the football game tonight.
This light that fills this room, those sounds from the high school football field that travel over the railroad tracks and across the tree tops, this...this...this is why I chose this home. This is what I saw and heard the first time I walked into this room 15 years ago, and in that moment I knew this was where I wanted to be, despite the knotty wood paneling which used to cover the walls and the hideous wagon wheel chandelier which used to hang above my head. Those things were easy to change, but I knew this light and those sounds were hard to come by.
A choir sings the national anthem. The crowd cheers and the game begins. The sun dips a little lower and the golden glow fades. That perfect moment, the collision of light and sound that inspired me to sit down and write, has passed. Now it's time to make dinner.
7 comments:
Perfect, Molly. Our home is also near the high school, and I enjoy the morning light listening to the band practice. We don't attend the games, but we like the festive notes that drift to our home. And our sea monkeys thrive on benign neglect.
This makes me smile and takes me back. My first kid home was on the hill above the high school stadium. Sitting on the back fence watching football games. Good times! Except when my brother fell off the fence and broke is arm. A sign of things to come. :-)
This is lovely, Molly. You wrote it so beautifully that I now have a mental picture of this space, the light, the sounds.
Beautiful, Molly. Absolutely beautiful.
sounds magical. xo.
This was a lovely bit of insight into your life.
this was so well written i could feel myself in your place. and what a lovely feeling :)
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