Journal #3: The Front Porch

Today I took a break from my studies and walked to a friend’s house, tucked into a residential neighborhood. It is a pleasant area with lots of grown trees and beautiful homes. We sat on the front porch and enjoyed some relaxing time in this peaceful outdoor setting. It was a hot day, but a nice breeze was blowing. It was a quiet, passive setting and I found myself listening intently to the noises around me. The birds were chirping loudly, as if they were talking to each other. When I focused solely the bird chirping, I could hear two of the birds chirping back and forth as if they were forming a conversation. A couple of dogs were barking, stay-at-homes chatting quietly as they walked by, and a lawn mower grumbled faintly in the distance. If I sat still enough to take in all of these subtle noises, my mind felt calm and serene.

There were many butterflies swarming the pink and yellow flowers that surrounded the front porch in large, cement pots. I think they like the warm sun as they move quickly about from flower to flower. Their behavior appears to be chaotic, but I’m sure it’s an organized chaos in their world. Some harmless honey bees were also in the purple flowers, moving from petal to petal gathering nectar I would guess. I could hear some crickets chirping, a few cars in the distance and the neighbor’s black lab panting. The many bushes that surrounded the landscape seemed to be a community in itself, abundant with life. A kind of life that is often overlooked, especially in the fast-paced society we live in. As I looked a little closer I could see an army of ants working busily too. I looked across the street and watched as two squirrels were scurrying about the front yard. They were busy gathering nuts and sitting up on their little hind legs and holding the nut in their two front paws. Then, they would chase after each other as if they were fighting for the next nut. They scampered back up the big tree and for a few seconds I lost them and couldn’t tell where they had gone. As I starred high up in the tree, I could see what looked to be a large birds nest, but the squirrels were coming and going from that nest. I came to the conclusion, that this must be there home as well. High up in the tree they lived in a nest that was their shelter.

As my heartbeat seemed to slow and relax, I started to take in the smells of the flowers and bushes around me. As the breeze blew, a different smell came and went all the while I sat. There was a sweet smell from the roses, an earthy small from cut grass and then a bit of a pungent small from what must have been from some different flowering bushes. I started to look at the shapes of all the trees in sight. Some were sharply pointed and cone shaped, some rounded and some of the tallest trees were such an irregular shape altogether. I started to wonder how many different trees I could see just from just this one spot on the front porch. I started to count them and lost track after 20.

It was early evening and the sun was rapidly lowering in the sky. With a bit of fall in the air, I started to think about the days getting shorter in length. Some dark clouds began to roll in somewhat quickly and it looked like we might get a shower. The breeze picked up, the tall trees were swaying a bit harder now and the sounds of the birds was muffled or maybe grew faint. I wonder if they could sense a bit of a change in the atmosphere as this weather started to change and become even more breezy. Were they sensing some rain? The clouds moved away as quickly as they came and the warm sun was back out. Even if for just a short while more, I thought this peaceful moment might never end.