A line cast, a hope followedWednesday, February 23, 2005
As I drove out leaving work, a male pheasant took off and flew over my car and over the wetlands towards the parking lot, his long banded tail drooping behind. I took Joey out for a long walk as soon as I got home. I felt so happy. The plum trees along Columbia have blossomed and now smell amazing. The daffodils are beginning to pop open, looking like the yolks of a hard boiled egg with the sheaf over the bloom, then such a bright runny yellow yolk where they've broken open. There are banks of crocuses in people's yards in saffron yellows, purples, and whites. The sky was fuschia colored in the west, and against the silvery blue in the east, the huge full moon rose. In the moon's reflection in the pond, a circle of white geese nearly mirrored the white sphere in the sky. I met an older man and his dog Stormy, and he joked that since the moon was full he needed to hurry home and ask his wife for favors. I wished him luck. I felt lucky. A young woman jogged past us and told Joey he was a very beautiful dog. I wasn't scared when it darkened, and I returned on the path along the creek in the dusk. I wasn't lonely. I stopped and listened to the call of the pair of widgens, a pretty whistling sort of call so different from the mallard's quacks and honks. As Joey and I turned off the path onto Columbia again, a man hopped out of his car and retrieved his dry cleaning from the passenger side, waved at us and went inside. There were two more yellow ribbons up around trees further down the block, and I wondered if they were supporting their neighbors, or also experiencing a deployment. The man who had retrieved his dry cleaning got to take down his yellow ribbon just before Christmas. Joey was happy too. He had found several patches of duck and goose poop to gobble up before I could yank him away. He got to play his wild dog game, where he runs up and grabs the fabric part of the extension leash, then bounds away leaping and jumping and pulling out the line until it stops, then running in circles, dropping the fabric from his mouth, letting it retract and running up to grab it again. He would have liked to jump on the little girl learning to ride her bike but we didn't allow that. It was a nice walk tonight. I wonder why I can be so happy about such normal things. I am happy that I am.
