The Hillhouse

Should get to bed soon, but for now I’m not worried about it. I sit on the couch admiring the new orange candles I got recently for the mantelpiece. Every season I swap out the throw pillows on the couch, the shades on my tiny table lamps, the three wick candle on the piano and the candles on the mantel for a change of color and mood in the room. And I trade out whatever organic specimen I have in the tall floor vase for whatever’s reflective of the season. It being June I decided to embrace orange. Haven’t done orange before, but it felt fun. Happy to see that it really does look cheery and fun as I’d hoped. And it goes with the giant sunflowers. I sit on the couch taking it all in, feeling an end of the day kind of good. Elihu is sitting at the piano finding every melody he can think of. I don’t offer any help. This is a perfect moment, and he is doing just fine. He’s getting better at finding pitches. I notice his improvement as I sit here, enjoying this moment in time. He plays sorrowful, ancient melodies, he plays folk songs, he plays polkas. My mind wanders as I listen, eyes caught by the flames. I know that for now, there is a vast field just beyond the stone wall in which a female woodcock sits on her clutch of eggs. In the back of my mind I know that field may well not be here this time next year, but for now she is there, we are here, and all is well.