A Few Perfect Hours

 

I became aware of having total peace and happiness for an undetermined time last weekend. It could have been an hour, could have been three or more.

It was a rare night when my adult sons were mostly not around, and when they were home they were totally not interested in what I was doing or with whom.

I bought an outdoor firepit for our deck many years ago, and it has only been used by my sons. When my husband was still around, he had no interest in using it with me. The kids have had many lively parties with it on the deck.

I invited my boyfriend over last Saturday night and asked him to bring a guitar because I wanted to make a fire outside.

After the chores of grocery shopping and cooking dinner were done, he started to collect leaves and wood to start the fire. It started small, and never got too big that we would have to worry about it burning for hours into the night.

The weather was near perfect; warm enough to not wear a jacket, but not hot. It had rained earlier that day which made us appreciate clear weather that much more. No annoying bugs yet. Only ones that made a pleasant buzzing sound when they flew by. The other sounds were reminiscent of mid summer; tree frogs, birds, crickets.

We quietly enjoyed the summer song when he was done playing the guitar tunes he knew.

We had a few cocktails, even smoked a joint.

Of course I had a bit of monkey mind here and there, but at one point I was gazing at the red and blue flames of the fire as they danced, and thought to myself, “this is about as good as it gets”. Make a note of it. This is that note.