aperture.

The sun was out, the air warmed enough by that accommodating sun for me to go on out too. And to bring a camera along and capture the day in stills.

Well, you bring a camera along if you’re my friend Dominic.

And if you’re me?

Then you break out into arabesque.

Because you’re on a hill, you’re outside, and you’re holding a guitar. Arabesque is definitely in order.

Right?

And so is wearing a shiny black jacket and hood so perfectly balanced by a dress that is apparently made of cobwebs, it’s that warm.
Whoever said fashion was warm anyway?

And I like this picture because you can see my parents’ neighbor Mike creeping on us just beyond my left shoulder.
In just a few moments he’s going to come up and ask us, rightfully so, what the heck we are doing leaning against his fence, relating to his horses, JR and McGuinnly.

It made him feel a little better that I belong to the round house on the hill, that my parents are ministers, and that neither of us seemed up to no good.

Actually a lot better because he mentioned how nice my folks are so in the end he was giving out compliments like it was a Sunday pot-luck and I had brought the dessert.

Mike was actually a lot less scary than the horses.

Cause I have this fear of horses and at one point I could have sworn that JR was going to bite me. I still think my catlike reflexes and ability to good and shriek probably saved me from a pretty bad horse bite.

And don’t ask me what a pretty good horse bite is, smarty pants, cause I would venture to say there is no such thing.

Now, this jacket.

See all that shine? And what you can’t see, but what I am only too happy to point out, is the rich purple that’s on the inside of it. That purple was a secret, but I don’t mind sharing it with you. And wouldn’t you think that all that shine and secret purple would cost a pretty penny?

Well the nice thing is that it didn’t.

Not even close.

And it has a working zipper too. That’s a nice change for me, actually.

And did you really think that I’d do an arabesque only once?

Or that I’d mention how shiny my new jacket is only once?

Because I am nothing if not consistent.

Or maybe just a creature of habit.

Probably both.

But did you make it outside today?

The warmth and sun was enough to make you daydream.

And last night’s sunset.

The way it hung in the sky, lingering for what seemed to be just my benefit, was grace itself.

I mean, nobody owed me a sunset like that. God certainly didn’t. I was stuck in traffic, not being particularly grateful–actually being irritated by every one of the cars in front of me that were irritated with every one of the cars in front of them. As if we weren’t all after the same thing anyway.

Sort of like life.

As if we all aren’t just trying to cobble some purpose out of the mess we’ve been handed; some sentences that make sense, maybe even rhyme like poems that speak of better things than the prose we’ve been using for too long.

But then the sunset just begged to be admired and I don’t like to make anybody beg for too long.

So I did.

In my car, late for wherever it was I needed to go. And that admiration that came over me stopped the anxiety. Made it seem small and senseless in the grand scheme of things.

And I’d like to remember that sunset.

I’d like it if all my other thoughts don’t crowd it out any time soon.

*all the pictures by Dominic DiTanna