I lazily rock in my hammock, my book precariously perched, eyes closed, while I enjoy the Indian summer.  The sun shines down coming close to feeling more than comfortably warm.  A cooling breeze comes from nowhere reminding me Fall is only a month or two away and I think of my sister who eloquently described a moment such as this as a “Peppermint Day”, warm to begin and a lingering freshness after.  

 

These thoughts are comforting as I allow myself the pleasure of their memories.  If I indulge myself still farther my mind begins to wonder how each of us finds our own form of comfort or safety.  Some find their comfort in food – gourmet or gourmand, some in purchasing objects of desire; others find safety in the loving shelter of friends and family, some in solitude and memories, others still wrap themselves in the comfort of their faith.

 

Each of us must discover what reassures, especially during times when we feel we are pushed beyond our limits to a place where there is little consolation to be found.  At those times, fear and loneliness must sit on the back stoop waiting while I remember the peaceful feel of rocking in my porch swing, listening to a soft summer rain fall on the tin roof over my head as the incense of the gardenia bushes surrounds me.

 

Ah, my weary heart is soothed.

 

                                 ~Martha

Comfort Corner

When I think of the summer months I automatically think of my childhood, those “hazy, crazy, lazy days of summer”.  Memories come rushing back in Technicolor, complete with sound and fragrance.

 

I spot the perfect seat on the sand, by the ocean, and run - the sand singes my feet as I race from the car to the spot where I spread out my towel.   An odor of heated coconut oil mixed with the sea’s salt air invades my nostrils while I walk near the water, scrambling into the hot dry sand as the cold water washes in next to me.