Another Random Ramble

 Another Random Ramble

  

A thought came to me today as I watched the rain tumble in down in heavy squalls… …. I love the rain for that very reason, the free-flowing thoughts that seem to drift in on the fragrance of rain… … this was more a memory that a mere thought…. a delicious memory from a very troubled time in my life… … it was a year after my partner passed away… I was having trouble filling the empty spaces in my life that his absence created… I was emotionally vacant to everything but my children and the children were well and truly over my overprotective mothering my clinging need to check & recheck on their safety and well-being…  

… as it happened I seemed to ‘collect’ people who needed nurturing, and four other adults found shelter under my motherly wings… and this helped fill some of the empty spaces… but did not soothe the inner ache I held deep inside. One night while feeding this tribe, one young man mentioned he had been given property in an inheritance, 80 acres that came with a massive shed…. 80 acres he was yet to set foot on. I felt my eyes light up. 80 acres of Mother Nature…. the thought excited me at a time when nothing else could. I suggested we go there… all of us… and he agreed a weekend trip might be fun. A weekend trip! Oh no I said… lets live there! Here his eyes lit up… but he was full of buts… but no water…no power…. No buts! We could do this I told him… we could…. so we did…. we moved to ‘The Farm.  

…anyway….the memory…. is of the bathroom at ‘The Farm’…. the bathroom was a tin shack built by us on the outside wall of the shed…the tin had old nail holes in it & was rusty in places… I prefer to call it rustic…. there was no running water… no plumbing… just a massive big old fashioned bathtub and a copper heater with a big copper pot to boil water over a fire… … on days that began and ended with continual rain I loved nothing more than to appropriate the bathroom…. I would start the fire…. set the water heating…. and warn everyone that I would be bathing with the door open so I could see the rain. Neck deep in hot water with the fire heating more water no more than two feet from the tub… … flames dancing and leaping… I’d gaze out the door at the falling rain… hissing ‘round the trees and puddling on the earth… sigh… that was the best bathroom I ever had….  

 Just thought I’d share that… and here is an old poem written about that time… 

 

simple pleasures

she watched kangaroo's grazing

in the nearby pasture,

afternoon winter-sun soothing on her face

enjoying the isolation

from the modern world’s rat race,

she bent to gather sticks

to stoke the copper

already full to it's miss-shapen lid

with water pumped from a dam

that boasted three tame ducks,

she began the process

of the daily fire heated bath

and with deliberate planning

she was to be the last,

the precise moment of her escape

into the candle lit warmth of fragrances,

her pleasure

had to coincide with previously washed

and now winter-fed

sleepy children protest not

but trudge willingly to bed,

and with winter's perving feelers

chasing goosebumps along her skin

and candle shadows dancing

to flames that whisper of passions

blushing from within,

she sinks into the water's warm motherly womb

with sighing eye's that close against

fatigue and hidden pain

she rubs roughened soap lathered hands

over muscles that cry for the struggle and strain

the sudden heart breaks and anorexic sorrow

and her rain misted hopes for each tomorrow,

but the comfort of shadows flashing warmth

on the old tin walls

draws from her the aches

of life's daily toils,

restoring her with fire lapped ministrations

that release unknown urgings of energies

and the sudden desire to fill

each new tomorrow

with the simple resolution

to let go of her sorrow,1996

 Man, I wish I still write like that.

Peace & Love to All

Sharonlee©