Morning Calm
It’s around 7:15am and I’m out walking my dog before going to work. It rained the day before, and again overnight, so everything is wet. I see some other people walking their own dogs, but for the most part, the roads are empty. Squirrels are running around and birds are chirping and cawing. Otherwise – it’s calm.
I’m reminded of a campground the morning after a rainfall. Sure, when it’s raining, it’s disappointing (that’s a day “lost” from your vacation), but you figure out something to do. Sometimes you can sit outside under the canopy and play cards or travel board games, sometimes you do the same inside. We played Crazy Eights or Spoons when we had the cards out. For the life of me, I can’t remember how you play Spoons, except that it involves grabbing spoons from the middle of the table. There aren’t enough spoons for everybody, sort of like musical chairs.
But the morning after the rain – people are still lazing in their sleeping bags, keen to stay dry. That’s what it felt like this morning. Maybe it’s because our neighbourhood has big, old trees, the kind you tend to see in campgrounds. The kind that get knocked over by wind storms. Either way, no one is rushing to get out the door, except maybe me.
It takes a perfect confluence of elements to create this specific feeling of calmness in the morning. There’s a calmness in a sunny summer morning but it’s not quite the same as the feeling after a rainfall. Sometimes it seems like that feeling can’t be recreated.
I enjoy it while it lasts.