#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

"The summer night is like a perfection of thought."
- Wallace Stevens

We ate on the deck and lingered in the evening air before mosquitos, before dusk, in the light on the green grass that Frank mowed, that is full of water still from our days of rain. Today was a planting day, a pleasant and exhausting day. Grateful for the help of Rob, our friend, and we took apart the grape arbor and replanted the grapevine; I am so glad that is done! It was nice to be in the garden and feel a dampness in the soil. We all swam at my friend’s dock in the late afternoon and my youngest and I went to the pump house and back and yes, she out swam me, of course, and I was proud of her. Poetry workshop tonight, despite the holiday, and I got mostly helpful feedback about my poem. . . Here’s what was very helpful to me today: the swim, even though I felt very tired and the water felt colder than I wanted, and my heart wasn’t in it when I started. And then, stroke by stroke, a flash of sun breaking through a cloud and shining into my face, and the sense of my strength, the strength of my lungs and heart and also my mind, to feel myself safe in deep water, to make myself safe in deep water, because I can.