Stillness At Dusk

I’ve actually managed to rein in some of the many gardens around our cottage. But the further away I tread away from the house, the messier It gets. There is work to do in every corner. Countless grueling jobs await us. Impatiently I dabble at one or two or ten in my travels around to water thirsty plants, mostly vegetables now, that have been parched by the incessant winds pounding their moisture out of them, just before harvest. But I dilly dally through my tasks unlike the invincible husband who is now conquering the clogged pipes overcome by tree roots. With each sunny day, or even on cloudy but mostly dry days, we hunker down in our respective areas, undaunted by how slowly the progress is eked out.
I even cleaned out and reorganized some really grotty parts of the house that I despise being responsible for, having had home help for most of my adult life for those types of deep cleaning projects. But I prevailed in the end. Well, kinda anyway. Actually, that intensive work helped me focus on the endless amount of dirt in surrounding areas that I try to avoid at all costs. Even better than that job, I also removed the encrusted baskets and pots hiding under the church pew bench in the front of the house and I’m not putting any of that stuff back there to accumulate more webs and filth. Unfortunately, the country traffic off the dusty road that we’re very close to, produces endless amounts of dirt that land at my doorstep. Then the chicken babies do the rest. The little darlings are really quite attached to me. But they’re so damn cute I overlook their proximity and laugh at their antics instead. I actually caught them after they went to bed, mostly piled up into the nearest little egg laying house. I counted five in the front alone and they’re too big to really do that comfortably now. And the one brave brown one still sleeps in the thorny rose bush all alone now without any other companions.
So, there I was. My chores were mostly finished for the day. But it was so hypnotically gorgeous outside and still as the light from the day turned into dusk. I found myself just ooh-ing and ah-ing at the scene in front of me as I stood gaping at the big pond with its wild growth and in the background a massive tree that just turned golden yellow this week in the center behind it. I felt such peace and contentment washing over me. These moments show me the meaning of my life.