Something Creative
Sitting bound to my desk today my mind is wandering to where I would like to be instead. As y’all know I’m a northern girl…born & raised in Minnesota. I’ve lived here my whole life & I belong here like I could never possibly belong anywhere else. Don’t get me wrong I love to travel & have many cherished dreams of living as a gypsy if I could. However, for a dyed in the wool Yankee I have some very Southern sensibilities. I love the South…2 of my favorite trips in college were to Mississippi. Now I know you are wondering what I’m on about…bear with me & I’ll take you on my daydream travels.
One thing I’ve always wanted is a big old fashioned farm house….like something out of the deep South. Something you expect to see surrounded by giant trees dripping with Spanish moss. I want the 2-3 stories, open floor plan on the main floor with spacious bedrooms on the 2nd floor & an attic filled with steamer trunks where my kids could play. It’s a white house with blue trim & a bright blue front door. There’s a deep shaded porch on 3 sides with a wide rail all around. There are always a couple black labs laying there, watching & guarding our life. The kids run through, chasing & yelling while playing some game or trying to catch lightening bugs on hot summer nights. There are a couple rocking chairs (likely designed by Abe) but tucked in a corner is a well-used hammock. That’s where I am today…
Because I love music there’s always something playing. Depending on the mood I’m in or the mood I want to be in you can find a melange’ of styles in my collection. I’m always excited to find something new that moves me in some way. I have my favorites like anybody…the music that pulls at me, tugs me to the dance floor or running for some kleenex. Since the weather here today is gray & cloudy I’ve pulled up some quiet slow music to flow with the pace of my day. At my desk right now I’ve got all sorts of paper sorted into their tidy little piles, pens are strewn about & I’ve got posty notes everywhere. (I love pens…especially my fountain pens & my passion for posty notes is legendary.) The phone keeps ringing & my headset is firmly attached to my left ear.
My mind (or at least a large part of it) is off on that porch on a lazy rainy autumn day. The kids are in school (naturally—this is my fantasy after all…I can put people wherever I want them) & I’ve got the day to myself. So, I throw some Leonard Cohen on the record player (a real honest-to-goodess record player…vinyl just fits better here than an iSomethingorother) open the long wide windows & with a very large coffee, a dog-eared paper back & the afghan from Grandma B I curl up in my hammock. One of the labs will inevitably jump up to share my space. With the deep brooding tones of Cohen floating out into the gray misty day I stare out at the trees…letting the leaves blur around the edges until they appear like an Impressionist canvas. Of course I tear my eyes away & start to read either “Gone with the Wind” or “The Thornbirds”. A day of petulant skies calls for something filled with love & loss. The sound of the rain dripping from the eaves, the call of geese flying south & the gently motion of the hammock combine to lull me to sleep. My dreams will swirl with the color, light & sound of my story—drawing me into the world as a character. After napping I’d find a little something to drink & then crawl back into the hammock with my pink fountain pen, my fleur de lys embossed leather journal and do some writing. The pen scratching its pink life onto the creamy pages….words flowing into a meaning that the reader will be left to discover.
As the day melts to early evening a milky sun slides down to the west & I get up to greet the kids and make dinner. As the kids do their homework (ok, now I’m certain this has reached fairy tale proportions as there is no way the kids would actually be doing homework—more likely they’d be reading, watching Looney Tunes or playing a video game) I will be in the kitchen, barefoot & dancing between counter and stove. A homemade spaghetti sauce bubbles in one pot & noodles cook in another. Garlic & butter melt into bread under the broiler while I uncork a bottle of wine. I’m sure to be singing along with Leonard Cohen as I set the table….something like “A Thousand Kisses Deep” or “In My Secret Life” or my favorite “Dance me to the End of Love”.
Well that’s my trip to fantasy land for today…I need to go cook some dinner & find my fountain pens….
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http://littledailyescape.blogspot.com Megan
