Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The lake is calm, and the winds have ceased to blow for today.
It has been a cool and windy July so far on the lake, almost spring-like, and the pace of life here has once again been a gift I cannot adequately describe in words. The phone does not ring, there is no e-mail to check, there are no cars. The children wander out into the common and find others to play with, the grown-ups don't worry, and there is laughter everywhere. 
Today Aoife cut her foot in the lake on a mussel shell. She was bleeding everywhere, and as I carried her back to the house, she buried her little face in my shoulder, sniffling.
"And I'm also a little sad about Charlotte," she said. 
This is what it's like for me, too. If I get sad about anything, or mad, it always all comes back to Charlotte.

And by-the-by? There is a new baby up here, the child of some new renters, named Charlotte. She cries sometimes and her mother is too busy to pick her up, and it's all I can do to not go and scoop up her sweet, blue eyed little self and take her home. 
I had to tell her mother, of course, the moment she told me her name. I haven't told her the whole story yet, though, and I'm sure she's insatiably curious to know WHAT HAPPENED. But she'd never dare to ask, would she. That's my story to tell. 

My borrowed laptop is running out of juice, the mosquitoes are biting me outside the vacant cottage I'm pirating the wireless from, and the kids are ready to be tucked into their beds for a long summer's rest. I miss this world, miss writing and take photos and see scenes every day that belong here on my place, but I am cherishing as well the ability to be away from the screen and the isolation of the computer. It is refreshing and kind to the soul.

5 comments:

Hope's Mama said...

Beautiful, Carol. Have missed you.
xo

Sara said...

Miss you too, though it is nice to not be connected for a little while.

Lara said...

Our oldest daughter Lily always remembers her little brother baby taz. When she is hurt or upset she too circles back to baby taz-the saddest part of her life. WIth your words I realize i too always come back to baby taz in my anger and sadness about anything. Enjoy the calm.

kris said...

I like the way Lara put it...circling back to the saddest thing she knows. And what a gift that Aoife knows enough to miss Charlotte.

Sounds like the lake is restoring the soul.

njt said...

Miss you too. Been checking. Glad the lake is treating you well. Such a magical place. I have sand in a glass bottle on my stairwell labelled "baby beach".
xo