a perfect day...

Ever since I was a young boy, I have wondered why on earth an older couple would want to stay in their manicured yard..and relax. I used to see 'older' people actually enjoying themselves in dialogue...in their yard.

How could this be I wondered? Why are they not out hiking or camping I thought? I wanted to scream at them over the fence..."get out and enjoy life"...wow...how boring I thought.

With the weather so perfect in Portland this Memorial week-end, I am sure that several hundred..if not thousands of people are flocking to find a piece of property to pitch and tent...and sleep on the ground.

But something special happened this weekend...I realized that "I" am that older person I saw when I was a young boy...my wife and I are that 'older couple' that enjoys listening to our huge water-feature pond, feeding the ravenous appetites of the Goldfinches, and more importantly I am not "afraid" of who I am (and have become)...I am at peace with myself! Finally!

We have worked for 15 years to get the look we have now... (we have worked longer on this yard than the number of years I was alive when I used to see old people in their yards). Well, I love my yard for the way it bombards my senses and shields me from the rat race. When I look out a window, walk out a door, or drive up in my car, I'm blinded by my own smile. After one of Portland's toughest white winters I can't get enough of its myriad shades of green and the songs of all the various birds.

The scent when I mow the grass ... wow, that fresh green fragrance ... there's no smell that brings back more Saturday morning memories than a freshly mowed lawn. The sound of the water splashing in our pond near the back patio, and the twittering of birds in the feeders in our 'bird garden' connects me to the natural world in a way that completely drowns out all other ‘stressful’ things in my life.

And to sit on the patio at the end of the day with a cool beverage, and feel the garden air play over my face, with the fragrance, and the splashing and twittering, and the scent of grass now mingled with the aroma of a perfect t-bone on the grill ... well, put it all together and it's the ultimate escape. What I did not know as that young boy (many moons ago)..is that "I deserve to sit on my ass after working all these years."

I love my yard...I love my wife....and I am not afraid to say...”I love my life."