On a Night Like Tonight

Sitting outside on a sultry summery evening, listening to the birds, swaying in the canvas swing that hangs from our giant maple tree as I type this, taking in the smells and sights of our little piece of urban yard, and all I can think is "All is well on a night like this." There's something about this weather and evening-time that makes me forget the bills, the bits of food that are stuck to the dining room floor (why don't we have a dog??), even the projects that I forever list out in my head when I look around the yard. I get nostalgic in weather like this: for the times of running around with my sisters catching fireflies in jars, for the evenings on my grandparents' farm when we'd all hang out on the porch and look over the wheat fields and pastures that surrounded their white house, for the walks with my husband around the neighborhood at dusk, for the evenings of sitting on the back steps of the Xerxes house with Em and sipping a Blue Moon, for the glory days just out of college when my girlies and I had our first apartments in the city and we'd sit out on our amazing balcony and talk about the things we were going to do with our lives (interspersed with a lot of boy talk).

Sigh.

For me, there is really nothing so sweet as an evening, a great sunset, warm weather, and guilt-free wiling away the time.