Some moments are forever~~~

   Gently, she let her head tilt back until it found the padded headrest of the patio spa.

A rare afternoon it had been that had allowed her to escape the demands of unending responsibilities, meetings, and deadlines. She spent these few cherished hours at home, working in the yard. After weeding, raking, and watering, she realized how long it had been since she had been able to enjoy such activity. Always, racing against the clock, it had been too long… too long. She closed her eyes and felt the comforting warmth of the sun as it caressed her face. Her hands and limbs ached from the labors of the day, but it was an ache that she cradled close to her heart. She needed desperately to feel the soil between her fingers once more. She needed this time to find her center again…

   Her body slowly relaxed as soothing swirls of water jetted over her tired and aching muscles. She remembered that as a child, whenever she felt upset, she would go down to the lake. She’d run the length of the old logging path, until she stood out of breath at the clearing, the blueness of the sky mirrored on the water’s surface. She smiled, because in her mind, she was standing there now. She breathed in deeply as her soul exhaled. Her thoughts floated free like the weightless clouds of the late afternoon. She submerged herself deeper into the music that flowed soothingly through the house-mounted speakers. She lingered in that moment, her thoughts wrapped around her heart…

   As the sun began to set, she fastened the lid on the spa. Thousands of yellow-petaled blossoms on the Palo Verde trees swayed to and fro in a gentle breeze. The sun slowly disappeared behind the mountains. Two young hawks, returning to their nest in the old Eucalyptus tree at the corner of her house, suddenly drew her attention. Each year, new babies began their solo flights from that tree; that tree that had also been the place where her children had played, and where she spent many an hour relaxing in a wooden chair beneath its boughs. How quickly time goes by, she thought. Hour by hour, day by day, and yet some moments are forever etched upon our hearts. She let the pages from the past turn a chapter at a time through her mind as she walked slowly back to her house. She shook her head and sighed softly as she could hear the phoning ringing and her name being called impatiently. Taking a deep breath, she climbed the stairs one by one… and smiled~