To be good to each other.

In the early summer the heat of the sun and the gathering of family starts off with a lot of excitement. You can hear families exploding fireworks on the beach. Bang Pop. Look at that. 

Children are playing ball on the beach with no gloves and no shoes. Catching the ball with their bare hands. Proving that you can. 

Eight dogs are being walked. All on leashes. The sun is about to set. Amber will turn to dark pink. Those dogs will lie at the end of beds and go to sleep.

My neighbour drops off fresh flounder, caught just this morning. It will be cooked for supper. Why save what is fresh and perfect, caught by hand.

Friends come for lunch and bring a basket of strawberries. We drink anise tea.

I leave my sunglasses by the door and switch them out as I enter and leave the house. 

My white linen pants are baggy and wrinkled. I will wash them by hand and hang them on the line, checking for ticks before I bring them in.

I find a novel and read the whole thing and find a typo.

And there is still work to do. I am writing a course. I am writing a book. I am dreaming of possibilities. I am wanting to hook. Create beauty everyday chimes in my head. Am I doing enough. Yes, always. You cannot stop yourself.

Swim. Swim again. Dry the towels. Count your blessings.

Wash the dishes. Wash the dishes again. Try harder to count your blessings.

Cook. Cook some more. Watch it disappear. Thank yous all around. Do the dishes again. Count your blessings. Count your blessings. Count your blessing. Make it a mantra. 

Try hard to appreciate that your nails are weak from the dish pan.

When a day is ordinary. When the grey clouds cover the sun and the rain spits down on us we are still here.

We are here in the summer and this place holds the hope of generation to generation. It is the place we gather. Not only to rest but to step back from the world and see that we are lucky to be loved. 

That even in perfection there is no perfection. We are only people after all. 

Foibles in all of us. 

And we work to be good to each other for that is why we are here, to be good to each other.