Porch Sittin'

It seems like I have done a lot of porch sittin' this summer. I love a good porch, a great rocker, a cool evening with cicadas buzzing and lightening bugs flying around twinkling up the sky.  Or an early morning when there is fog rolling by. Don't see so much of that anymore. Where did the fog go I wonder? Our vacation was mostly about sitting and rocking on the porch. It was nice.

This past week, I spent a few days sittin' on the porch of a good friend of mine. She had cancer surgery to remove a god awful large tumor. I packed a bag and moved in for a few days to help. We mostly sat on the screened porch and talked, ate, drank coffee in the mornings, tea in the afternoons. It was like a peaceful retreat from reality.

She talked, I listened. I talked, she listened. We shared stories, worries, fears, past regrets, family tales, laughter. She never once had an iPhone in her hand while I talked. I never looked at mine while she talked. I didn't get up or leave the room while she was talking to me. We LISTENED to each other. How often do you get the opportunity to do this in your own home?

At my house, the lives of others are certainly more important than anything I might like to share, a funny story or an opinion. What is happening in a text or an instagram or an email is way more important than any silly little thing that I have to say, so I was so happy to have these days with my friend, who tolerated my chatter and shared a laugh  or two. I am very blessed to have some good friends who like to talk with me about any old thing that might come up.

Wesley is home for a bit and we have been sharing some sittin' time too. It's nice to have her here before she moves to California and I am savoring every moment of the time she allows me. Oh, silly mom. Stop your fretting....... she will be fine out there on the west coast.....

Yesterday was a suck ass day of moving her furniture out of her college house in Winston Salem. Just the two of us. The heat was oppressive, the humidity nearly intolerable. I would prefer to never see the inside of a moving van for as long as I shall live on the Earth. I won't even talk about the refrigerator and the fact that the power was off for a month in July North Carolina heat and why she has the mask on, sittin' on her front stoop!

But we did have long periods of drive time when we talked, only every now and then did she look at her phone.......  it was a fine time!