SUMMER BREEZE
An awareness -
It is the early part of the month of July, warm and sunny and in our neighbourhood all is very still and quiet. Pleasant enough to take an early morning coffee out through the French windows and sit under the sunshade with a book or the morning papers to read. But you don’t read, just sit transfixed by the beauty of it all. A gentle breeze blows.
In the garden, there are long grasses growing amongst the more established shrubs. As such they are unwanted weeds. They are however tall and elegant with long stems with a grassy-like flourish at their top. In the gentle breeze they bend, one moment this way, the next the other, as if dancing with the joys of life. They bow and bend in the most elegant way whereas other plants remain mostly motionless in the warmth of the summer breeze.
The radio plays quietly and unobtrusively through the open doorway and spills out onto the patio. I am attentive to the music being played, ‘Summer Breeze’ by the Isley Brothers.
“Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowin' through the jasmine in my mind
Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowin' though the jasmine in my mind
See the paper layin' on the sidewalk
A little music from the house next door
So I walk on up to the doorstep
Through the screen and across the floor
Sweet days of summer -- the jasmine's in bloom
July is dressed up and playing her tune
And I come home from a hard day's work
And you're waitin' there
Not a care in the world
See the smile awaitin' in the kitchen
Through cookin' and the plates for two
Feel the arms that reach out to hold me
In the evening when the day is through
Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind
Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind.”
The next day. The wind has been strong overnight and continues well into the morning. The long grasses that yesterday danced are flattened and lay dormant carrying the heavyweight of the overnight dew. Younger grasses shorter in length remain upright and quiver nervously as if observing and knowing of the fate of their older family friends. The larger shrubs, yesterday still, now knowingly nod in the stronger breeze as if to say they've seen it all before.
A day or two later. The strong breeze of recent days has passed. It returns to hot summer days. The longer grasses have revived and stand taller than before. The younger grasses too, taller, as the others before now dance as well. There is no discernible breeze, no movement, except that acknowledged by the tall grasses that wisely nod, this way and that.
©MICHAELBAYLIS/SUMMERBREEZE/July/2010