I Have Lacked Lilacs

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It feels strange to be in this cool, green place reading about heat and wildfires in California. The photo above is the view from our bed in the little room we have rented here in Oxford. When we arrived, it smelled like grass newly mown, and lilacs.

Oh, how I have lacked lilacs! I was delighted to see them in bloom all over the neighborhood, the kind of lilacs I remember from long ago and have never succeeded in growing at home. I inhaled their fragrance and discreetly tore off a flowery branch to bring indoors.

The long trips to get here are wearisome, but we've learned to put ourselves in a state of suspended animation and endure. Even when exhausted and uncomfortable, I am never unaware of what a miracle and luxury it is to do this.

While waiting to board our flight in Los Angeles, we met a couple from Wales who had been visiting their son and his wife in Oceanside, sort of our daughter's situation in reverse. We seemed to have a lot in common and were soon talking as comfortably as old friends. They even invited us to visit them at their farm in Wales before we go home. Maybe we will. Meeting new people is one of the best gifts of travel, so that was a nice beginning.

Anyway, we emerged eventually into a bright English morning, or maybe it was afternoon. We had some time with the daughter we have come to see, picked up a few groceries, walked around enjoying the bright, clear light, and ate pizza with artichokes, capers, and figs at a local pub. Later, I slept the sleep of the very-tired for a few delicious hours, then awoke, and I mean wide awake awoke, at what the bedside clock indicated was 2:42 a.m. That's never good.I pulled out my tablet, of course. No, not a sleeping tablet, which might have been a smart idea, but my iPad.

I scrolled through the news, both global and local, and worked myself into a full-on state of anxiety and despair. What are we going to do? About what? Everything. Our poor, beleaguered planet.

But for now I'm just sitting here looking out onto dewy grass, an old wooden bench, and lilacs in bloom. There's even a cement Buddha in the corner of the backyard. I'm gonna take my clue from that.