House Poor

I have been getting up much earlier lately. Today I slept later. I awoke to an empty house as everyone is already off to their daily routines. I’m sitting on a deck behind a lovely house overlooking what is at this moment a showplace of God’s natural beauty. The thermometer is reading 80 degrees at 10:00am, though it’s overly optimistic as the sun is already shining on it. Due to some foolhardy choices on my part and overly optimistic assumptions when I moved here, there is a for sale sign in front of my house. I don’t know how many more moments I will have to enjoy this fabulous spot. Various factors have reached a confluence of necessity and we must downsize. There is a lot of good and considerable bad in that. But that thought is for another time. Right now I’m drinking in spring. The tall trees are in bud. Millions of tiny, tender sprouts on thousands of limbs. The birds are having a convention. Several intensely red cardinals have been calling to each other. A swallow flitted about looking for a nesting spot. The exhaust port of our clothes dryer was in serious contention for a minute or so. Glad she decided against it. A jay screeched a couple of times in its curious combination of ugly and pleasant cacophony. An invisible woodpecker an acre or two away provided percussion to the soundtrack. A brilliantly yellow little thing flew a few circuits of the yard and then found a limb that looked just right for a while. Butterflies are busy near the grass. Yesterday a big bumble bee fooled me momentarily into thinking that the first hummingbird had shown up, but it’s still a bit early for them. Some squirrels are about and at this moment the birds seem to have settled down to the morning’s labor at various spots. But the coffee clutch chatter still spreads through the tree tops. The recent rains are gone, all is dry and fresh and perfect. I’d like to just spend the day here. But I must face the real world. Or is it the unreal one? In any case, I go in hope of an unstoppable, inexorable spring. Will it invade my own soul?