An Easy Rhythm

It seems as if all I write about in this blog is the sunrise, but watching this ordinary daily occurrence sets the tone for the rest of the day – Emily Dickinson would say, “It’s all a common glory.” 

I noticed that someone had left a pair of shoes – a child’s shoes, by the size of them – next to the walkway, and I wonder how long they will stay there.  Martha takes her shoes off sometimes on warm days and parks them in that same place, blurry dimples of soft sand behind her where she has walked, and then closer to the water the clean outlines of her bare feet, heel and toes.  Her soles are tougher than mine; I always find myself thrown into a limp by crunching on a sharp shell, so I wear my running shoes or my hiking boots.  But I have decided I will let someone else remove these little shoes, perhaps not missed until the owner was halfway to wherever they came from.

We have fallen into an easy rhythm of sunrise and sunset and low tide and high, and it has been warm enough for three days in a row to eat lunch out on the balcony – shrimp burgers two days in a row, and tuna quesadillas today, and cold beer.  Our own little bistro table with the best view.

We do eat well, finding exactly what we need in the three grocery stores out here, especially Lowes Foods, which seems to have the freshest fruits and vegetables.  And in addition to Blue Ocean seafood, there is take-out from Friendly Market, a place on which we have relied for good, healthy food for several years now.

Owners Matt and Mindy Fitzpatrick started the market on a vacant lot on the corner of Bridges Street and Friendly Street (thus its name) and turned it into a 6000 square foot building with healthy food packaged to go, local produce when in season, and a good selection of beer and wine.  They opened a nursery a few years ago, and last year even sold Christmas trees.  Their pasta salad and cheese-and-tomato dip are staples, and this year they have begun to offer “Lighten Up 22” dinners to go.  So Chicken Bruschetta was dinner last night and will be again tonight (their dinners for two are so bountiful they turn into dinners for four).

In three days time, I have gotten caught up with my New Yorkers, and will begin on a book tonight.  Martha is reading Orhan Pamuk’s Snow, and I may start Anthony Doerr’s Four Seasons in Rome.  Martha reads more books than I do during the course of a year, and interesting ones, but I stay occupied with the New Yorker much of the time.  Out here, though, I read more in two months time than in ten months time in Highlands.  Perhaps I need to rearrange my free time in Highlands.

I brought my keyboard with me, too, not as good as a piano, but good enough to allow me to practice my handful of pieces of music and perhaps learn another.  

Good food, good books, good companionship, and a piano – what more could a person want on a Sabbatical?