What’s That?
I went to stand beside the road in the hills just south of town and watch the sky. Again. I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it some more. It’s one of those solitary pursuits I enjoy. As I watched yesterday, I wondered if any two people see beauty the same? Most likely no. So, when one says, look at that it’s beautiful, and the other looks and wonders why, yet exclaims with pleasure, is it a lie? Probably not, more likely it’s a nod to love or friendship. A thing done to please the other.
Not sure it matters anymore. No one left for me to appease or to appease me. Although that might be a bit strong. I still have friends. All I know right now, is that I like to stand beside the road and watch the clouds and sun play across the hills and sky. It’s quite a show, to me. And when the air is cold that’s a bonus because it means the air is clear and almost literally there appears to be nothing between me and the sky and clouds. That sucks a lot of trouble out of my brain. But I think I’m getting carried away.
Suffice it to say that when it comes to things to do standing by that road is one of my new favorite pastimes. And when I think back to all the times my late wife and I did something similar along beaches, woods and rivers, I go back to my original thought about how beauty is viewed. While she or I might truly have appreciated the beauty in and of itself, or maybe not even understood it, we also saw with the overriding eyes of love. That, in the end, is what won. Put simply. If this makes you happy, it makes me happy. And maybe, that’s what love is: opening one’s heart and saying, these are my treasures, and hearing in reply, those are treasures, indeed.
John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Tale