Is This Not The Perfect Sunday?

June 15th, 2008 - By Eric Renderking Fisk.  Bookmark and Share

All my life, for as long as I can remember, I've had this ideal. There's this picture in my head of what a perfect weekend morning would be, an uncluttered, uncomplicated time alone with my family.

This weekend I think we really achieved that goal, where the reality of the "here and now" matched with the romanticized version in my head. The question is this: how did this happen? How did we obtain this domestic nirvana?

It's because something was missing... it's absence was wonderful and joyous. Let me explain...

It's Sunday Morning here in southern New Hampshire and it's been raining. It's an overcast sky and the ground is still damp from the off-again on-again down pours. The weather today is different, not muggy at all as the mercury hovers between 64 and 68 degrees.

Here inside I've had some music playing. I picked "Summer" by George Winston, piano solo's with music that's familiar and still fresh. There's also the background noise of my son's playing with Legos and the things they've built. In the kitchen my wife and I have been cutting up  fruit and vegetables and talking about where we've lived and why we're happy living where we are now, with the simple satisfaction that all the yard work we had to do was done yesterday.

We're also making plans for building a shed out in our yard so we can make room in the basement for a larger work shop.

Part of the conversation we had was about how I hate change for changes' sake. Some things should just remain the same. If something is good just the way it is, don't fix what's not broken. Ed still works at the recycling transfer station, Big Mike is at Hannaford's at the bottom of the hill. Some of our favorite rail-trails were fine just the way they were before they were paved. Some of our favorite "portals through time" back to the way things used to be aren't the same and some of the aspects that made them perfect are gone, but we have our memories that we hope will never fade.

Here at home the coffee maker is where it's always been, just as the coffee and the mugs are up above in the cabinet. My desk is where it's always been here in my office, where I've conversed with all of you. Just now, my wife finished making a fruit salad and told me what made it so different this time. I hope she'll hammer out her secret to share with all of you on the food and drink section...

... and my Tex-Mex hash browns are threatening to burn if I'm not careful.

So, what's missing? Obviously, if you've been paying attention you would know that it's The TV. There isn't the constant over-organized cacophony coming out of the video box.

But what's really missing in the pressure to make this morning "perfect." Today I've just accepted things for what they are and let the morning just happen. I've allowed things to just happen on The Fedora Chronicles forum and not post any news items up until now.

I stood there in the kitchen with my wife talking about life as it was, how it is and what we hope will be. I was just there with her, and looking at her and realizing how beautiful she actually is, her beauty enhanced by the years we spent and the mile stones we've passed. There's also Coppertop talking about how some dinosaurs look kinda' weird and our youngest "H-Bomb" asking for more toast even after eating half a loaf of bread already.

It's Father's Day, but I don't care. It's Family Day. It's a moment when I've stopped to appreciate what I have and let myself remember this. Because in our modern times these are too few and far in between. While those of us are trying to get the most out of life, sometimes you just have to stop and slow down and let these moments just happen.

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What does "Carpe Diem" mean to you, can you 'Seize The Day' and appreciate the quite times for what they are?

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