This season in life…
…it is summer.
Every day.
All year long.
These hot flashes…will they ever end?
I sat out in my little white rocking chair, beneath the Victorian Portico of my Storybook Studio
and studied the ivy encircling the post, climbing up and into its gingerbread trim…
I saw the dark clouds forming.
Was a storm brewing, on this first day of summer…the real summer…
not just my own personal summer…
I studied the fragile petals of the hydrangea blooms reaching out to me, there.
A thousand shades…heavenly hues of blues and lavenders and pinks…
some were not so notable, just one shade…pretty…but all the petals the same color.
But then there were the blooms that defied the rules.
They looked like old souls…faded and beautiful and a thousand soft hues…
each petal different from the next…
Oh how these flowers intrigue me.
How much I think I'm like that bloom, there, with so many different shades…
an old soul, from another time.
And I ponder the ivy leaves…
with their veins ..always the same, no matter the size or shade of the leaf…
from the brightest tender green to the darkest leather...
those veins are always the same.
In this season, I am more aware.
I look at things a little more closely and appreciate their significance.
It requires putting down the electronics…
shutting out the noise…
sitting still..
no distractions.
Evening comes.
I fall asleep after little one has turned off her chattering and succumbed to slumber.
...but at 1:07, I am awakened by the flash of heat coursing through me..
and as I wipe my hand across my damp forehead,
I realize I had failed to step outside at bedtime, to see the moon..
the Strawberry Moon.
For the first time since 1948, there was to be a full moon on Summer Solstice.
Quietly, I slid out of bed, slipped on my gardening clogs by the back door,
and made my way out to the porch.
Before I could even look up to see the moon, the tin-shingled roof of my Storybook Studio was radiant.
The spotlight moon was shining down on my little haven.
Carefully, I descended the steps and peered through the leafy branches of the big hackberry,
and there it was.
How magnificent.
I snapped my photo…and after posting…I scrolled through the newsfeed of social media.
There were other photos…
girlfriends all over the world were looking up at the same moon.
Sandy, in Texas…she was awake with hot flashes, too…snapping HER photo of the moon..
and there was Marie in England..
and Lori in Indiana…she was liking my photo…
Laura, in Florida…DeeMagdalina in Virginia Beach…
Lisa in Oregon..
We all look at this moon with wonder.
It brings us all close, for a little bit, and causes us to feel a bond..
a sisterhood.
We're all in this, together…hot flashes and all..
No matter the "brightest tender"…or the "darkest leather"…
young or old…
our veins are the same.
The moon pulls and stirs us. It causes sleep to elude us. What a powerful force.
What a powerful force we are, as a sisterhood.
I see the moon, and the moon sees me…
God bless the moon ..
and God bless me.
The birds begin their chirping, as I end this post entry.
I will try once more, to sleep…
Goodnight, moon.
Blessings, friends.