Hot Summer Morning

Summer's breath started early this morning with a heat index of 111 degrees. As a habitual outside morning coffee drinker, I knew it was going to be a hot one. The roses are an explosion of vibrant red, sitting perky next to the grey and purple lavendar. When the wind blows just right, you can smell the spearmint where the tiny baby bunny and her mother sit. They think I can't see them. There was no sign of the squirrel who has been trying for the past two weeks to build a nest in the maple tree. It's obvious this is his first year because he fails miserably at coiling his broken branches into a circle. They fall every morning to the ground next to the wisteria. A red cardinal jumped onto the last standing tiger lily which made me laugh because the little chipmunk ran past at the same time. With a second cup of coffee came the tiny pecking sounds of a woodpecker that perfectly matched the whistling birds and the neighbor's hammer on his roof. At that moment, everything was in harmony, braided together and connected.

"Mom! Are you coming with me for the photo shoot?" Hannah asked. I don't know why we drove forty minutes away to the aboretum when our backyard is full of nature. A beginning photographer always thinks the grass is greener someplace else and a sad mom who's about to lose her last child to college will drive in the heat for the sake of connection.

Halfway there, I got a jolting sensation that the place was closed because it was Monday but it was open after all. We were the only people there who weren't working at the facility. The trails were steamy and the spongy mulch was fun to walk on. It's interesting that the butterflies and spiders are the last to arrive at summer's party. They were everywhere and the spider webs were too big and beautiful to capture on film. We almost missed the big brown snake that was sitting under the trees watching me as I ate my apple.

The dark blue winged thing that was a cross between a dragonfly and a butterfly frustrated Hannah. They were so fast.Then came the white zebra looking butterflies that also moved quickly. The prettier the butterfly, the harder they were to photograph. She didn't want to take pictures of the brown and orange ones, there were too many and yet they posed for the camera.
How typical, what we can't have feels more important that we fail to take notice of something equally beautiful that is staring at us right in the face.

Driving out of the arboretum, I mentioned how surprised I was that it was open since I had such a strong feeling it would be closed. The address on the sign was the exact same numbers to our address, only instead of sixes, they were nines. Was the universe sending me a message that we should have stayed in our own yard by showing me upside down sixes? We had fun anyway and after we cooled off in the kitchen, I reached for my cell phone. One new message. It was from Charlie, telling me the driver's license place was closed on Monday! The sent message was the exact same time that I had felt the arboretum would be closed. I may not be the best psychic around, but I do know everything has connection to each other whether it's bugs, animals or people whether you understand the game or not.