A Midsummer Afternoon Meditation

June 21, 2022
I came to the front porch to see if it was time to put out the trash barrels. I sat down because the day was simply alluring. The sky was bright blue, the clouds a fluffy white, a light breeze, and a comfortable temperature even in the shade. The climbing rose was a riot of red spewing over the porch railing. The birds were chirping in the trees and bushes. The shadows were waving softly on the porch floor, except for the shadow of the porch railing which fell in rigid lines. The chair was comfortable on my back. I could sit there for a long time.

The little boy from next door was riding his scooter up and down our driveway singing a little song. He could not see me through the bushes. I remembered another little boy who lived next door and learned to ride a bicycle in our driveway. He has since grown up and moved away. I remembered how many days as perfect as this one that I had played or later worked through without a thought of numbering them.

In my imagination I invited the friend I had been working with in the morning to sit beside me. I wanted her to stop stressing over obstinate technology and join me in the peace of the moment. It happens to all of us, I wanted to say. You are not stupid, just relax and it will work. After a while she relaxed and said, “What exactly did you mean when you said on Sunday that sometimes you feel in your heart that you are an evangelical?”  I knew then that she was present in the spirit.

Then another imaginary friend sat down beside me. She was young, blond, a little plump, and wore a red MAGA baseball cap. She did not say anything. I looked at the sky, the clouds, the trees, and flowers and I could not see any politics in them. We sank into the silence together and found peace.

Eventually, I went indoors. I opened Worship in Song and sang “Morning has broken … like the first morning…” with the help of one finger tracing the tune on the piano.

Later when I put the trash barrels out, I found the scooter abandoned in the middle of the driveway. I picked it up and placed it tenderly against a tree. And my stressed-out friend? She was still stuck on the technology.