Day 6: Breathing (1/11/22)

This morning: no hurried breakfast, no confused packing up, no sitting cramped in the car for hours. We could breathe. Take our time. Relax into this place of beauty. 

No scheduled tasks (except, of course, walking the dogs, feeding the dogs, making breakfast, clearing the table, washing dishes, putting them away, making the bed, sweeping the floor, organizing the food boxes, stringing a laundry line, emptying the gray water tank, then walking the dogs again and feeding the dogs again and eating lunch and cleaning up).

It’s amazing how you look at the clock and it’s 1:30 p.m. already, and you haven’t taken the time to breathe.

So we got on our bikes to explore the Mesquite camping area, which lies across a small bay from ours.

And I found a place to breathe.





The pictures don’t quite do it justice, but it’s a stretch of lake and grass at the far end of the park, where no one seems to come. I sat down on the bank of grass about three feet from the lake’s edge, breathing in the damp, rich smell of water. The sun warmed my face and glittered diamonds on the far side of the lake. The grass stretched away behind me, leading up to a picnic shelter; not a person in sight (Phil was in the bathroom 😊). Sun-warmed grass has a savory, fresh smell peculiar to the southern states; it always reminds me of sitting on the banks of irrigation canals in the San Joaquin Valley, breathing in the fragrance of wet crabgrass and river weeds.

At the curve of the bay two white birds swerved, dipped, and dove into the water with a splash, rising immediately and skimming the surface before rising and dipping again. It was the only sound.

I am going to bring a good book and my writing pad here one of these mornings (along with a snack or two and a thermos of tea) and sit—without schedule, clock, or obligation. Just wiggle my toes in the water, lay on my back on the damp grass in the sunshine, close my eyes, and breathe. 

In catechism class Rev. Tanis often liked to say the word ruah (with a guttural sound, very dramatic). He told us it was the Hebrew word for “breath,” and that it was also used to describe God’s Spirit. Genesis tells us that God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life.

I will lie on the grass and breathe, and think on that mystery.



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