High on Happiness

It was one of those late July days when the heat came straight from the sky’s oven, full of steamy humidity and heavy as lead.  Not a leaf was stirring.  Even the hardiest weeds drooped in thirst.

Warnings came on the hour: take care of the very old, the very young.  Watch for signs of heat exhaustion.  Go to a shelter or to the mall if you needed relief.

My 200 year old home is shaded by giant pines and built into the side of wooded hill.  Usually it is much cooler than the summer air outside.  But today even its coolest rooms were uncomfortably hot and damp.

Tink, my normally playful cat, searched for a cool surface, and settling for the dining room table top, stretched out for a day-long nap.  I drank a gallon of iced sun tea as I did my household tasks and ran my fans at full speed.

Finally, just before the sun set with a hard red glare in its white hot sky, a wind came, and with it fast, thick clouds the color of charcoal.  Tink and I walked out to the yard and I stood for awhile drinking it in, watching the trees dance, smelling the fragrance of imminent rain.  Tink took off to chase fireflies.

What a glad relief the rain brought!  What pleasure we find in such simple things!

I sliced a freshly picked tomato and cucumber for an evening treat and watched lightning play in the sky as I ate them, feeling happy, and blessed, and content.

Tomorrow’s sun will bring another scorching day.  But tonight, my neighbors and I will sleep in comfort and peace.

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