Scattered rain showers moved through last night as we ate take-out Mexican food in Adrienne’s back yard on Long Island. Those dark clouds must have been riding the edge of a high pressure system, because today was clear and dry, with hot sun and cool wind.
That high pressure wasn’t inside me, though. I’ve been thinking I have nothing to say yet about what it’s like post-job, post-Coalition ED, post-high pressure busyness. But I do.
We came to Long Island yesterday to take a baby break on our way back to New Hampshire — we needed some time on the early life side of the life=death equation. This morning we went to Sagamore Hill, the estate of Theodore Roosevelt on Cold Spring Harbor on the north shore of Long Island. We walked through a small forest with enormous oaks and tulip poplar trees out to a boardwalk over Eel Creek to the small beach along the harbor shore. Back on the estate grounds, we walked through the fields up to the house. By the front door was a grand old copper beech tree, planted by the Roosevelts in the late 1800’s, with a trunk like a leathery animal and a towering crown.
Once we got back to Adrienne’s house, we got to be on Emilio duty. I gave him pear and zucchini pieces to gnaw on, fed him a bottle, let him play in his crib and on the floor, and did some dinner preparation. The afternoon hummed along as if on a smooth track. At one point late in the day, Emilio was on my hip, sleepy and a bit dazed, while David lifted his hand out towards him opening and closing his fist, to see if Emilio would mimic him. Emilio lifted his arm slightly and opened his hand.
At that moment I realized I didn’t feel any pressure or any need to be anywhere else, doing any other thing. I’d gone for a beautiful morning walk on a crystal summer day and spent the afternoon taking care of a baby. “Ah yes,” I thought, “this is different.”
Grace Mattern 