If I Were Queen, Things Would Be Different

No, not "blues." Too busy reincorporating my real life into the fantasy/memory of endless road and sky, giant vistas and new cultures.

I'm still alone...the husband is on a biz trip, the son is off to parts north. The cat, however, is ecstatic that I am home. Or at least my shoes are, as he makes love to them hourly.

Tomorrow good times loom, theatre and dinner in NYC with old friends, husband reunited with wife, all feelings of home and comfort return. Meanwhile the laundry dries, the tchotchkes are sorted (mostly rocks, I do love my rocks) and dinner from the salad bar is procured.

As I sit on my deck and listen to the familiar sounds of crickets, birdsong and traffic, I remember the absolute stillness of the Painted Desert when, between other viewpoint-seeking vehicles, I stood alone, gazing at the magnificence of Mother Earth; It was a moment of silence supreme that will hang in my memory forever, on the same shelf with breathing the freshest air imaginable on the windy north shore of Maui, goggling at a sunset from Santorini's crater peak and listening to the lonely loon cries echoing over an evening reflection at Pharaoh Lake.