Long Hollow

I swayed on the porch swing, listening to Dave Matthews harmonize with crickets, cicadas, and two puppies breathing.

I leaned back, contemplating the contrast of shadowed leaves against a dusky blue sky, noting the one early star peaking out from the eaves on my outward swing.

No wind. No leaves rustling on the branches. No thunder or lightning or barking dogs.

My day's list wasn't yet completed, but I knew those moments on the porch, just being there, being still, breathing with the puppies, were as important as any to-do left on tomorrow's doorstep.

“Sometimes I feel like if you just watch things, just sit still and let the world exist in front of you-sometimes I swear that just for a second time freezes and the world pauses in its tilt. Just for a second. And if you somehow found a way to live in that second, then you would live forever.” 

~ Lauren Oliver, Delirium