My Every Morning Ritual

Most mornings I sit on my back porch with my much needed large cup of coffee watching the landscape wake up from its dark state of nocturnal activities. I can hear the bell ringing on a lead goat down the hollow a ways, as he leads his herd of followers out into the new morning light to graze on the new fresh spring sprouts shooting up through the just recently thawed ground. The birds are chirping as a new day begins reminding other fowl that is their territory, to stay out.

I light up my first cigarette savoring that first relief of nicotine, and no matter how many more you smoke that day you will not get that same feeling again until you wake up the next morning and do it all over again.

I live up at the farther end of the hollow on a slope. Behind my place on the other side of the hollow is a neighbor with a beautiful pond that has an Artesian well just above it, supplying it with fresh cold spring water continuously. It is so soothing and relaxing hearing the flow splashing into the pond in the morning. There is no better way to start the day, I’ll not do it any other way again after given this chance to enjoy the tranquility.

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Just last week the trees were blooming their majestic beauty with all their different colored blooms and fragrances. Decorating the pond like a parade of Mother Nature, but now the flowers have faded fast thanks to Jack Frost who still comes to these parts even in May sometimes. The leaves are filling out and it’s getting harder to see the pond from the porch more and more every day. The weeping willow tree has filled out so much since we moved here 4 years ago, its branches cascading down to the ground as if in morning. Even though we cleared off most of our property to see the pond, I enjoy more listening to the waterfall coming from the Artesian well.

I can sit here endlessly. But eventually, I have to get up, go back into the house and do something productive. Thinking about getting up makes me light just one more stoggy. What the heck, we only live once might as well enjoy it while I can.

Leslie Zpt.