It's a Beautiful Morning!

It’s a beautiful morning . I think I’ll go outside for a while and just smile. Hmmmm, sounds like a song. If you are old enough you would know this beautiful song performed by The Rascals. I was first introduced to this song by my Dad. He loved this song. He played it often when we were young. It holds great memories for me. I imagine my sisters would say the same.
I found the song on the internet this morning, so I’m playing it. Sisters, if you’re tuned in, play the song while you read on. http://www.stinalisa.com/BeautifulMorning.html

I’ve been playing the song over and over for quite some time now. I don’t get tired of hearing the same song over and over. Singing along with the song I’ve got such a charge like electricity running through my body and my heart is pulsating wildly. Memories and music, they are wonderful.

I’ve had to stop from what I’ve been doing a few times this morning because my heart has decided to take several “bitter-sweet grieving moments”. From in the deep recesses of my memory I can see me and my sisters outside with our Dad while he puttered in his car. The song "It's a beautiful morning" seemed to fill the air. I don’t know if the song was playing on the big walnut cabinet hi-fi stereo from in the house or on the 8 track tape player in the car. He may have been washing the car or fixing it. Whatever he was doing, I’ve got this wonderful mental picture of my Dad. Back to present: Did you notice that I spoke of my Dad in the past tense. He passed away this past December. I don’t know when one gets used to saying, “He passed away.” :(

Although my Pop suffered from ailments, his death was sudden and really unexpected. To say that “I miss him so much” just does not express all that I feel in my heart. Right now my eyes are welled up with tears and my heart aches in an odd way. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I’ve never lost anyone so close. I’ve lost grandparents, but I was so young I don’t have any recollection of my emotions. The song “It’s a Beautiful Morning” is still playing right now. This morning it’s comforting and inspirational.

It’s now 7:50 am. I’ve decided to take a walk. How could I not, “the hook” as my father would say, has been in my head for about an hour now. I really enjoy taking an early morning walk when the world seems to be sleeping. Walking alone is great. You get to take advantage of quiet time, pray, hear the birds singing, look at the beautiful landscapes (you get great ideas for your own garden – I like to look at my garden, not work in it). But today, being alone doesn’t seem like such a good idea. I want to be with my family suddenly (I wonder why? Ha, ha). It’s such a beautiful Sunday morning someone needs to share it with me. I woke my oldest daughter, Missy, and asked her if she wanted to take her new dog for a walk. She hemmed and hawed and said yes! I did my best to not hear the “I’m too tired, I’m not in the mood, why are you asking me” tone. To my surprise she woke her sister Skoots and asked her to come along (I think it was more like if I’ve got to go, you are coming too). I just love my girls. By the way a little clarification may be necessary with respect to their names. Missy’s real name is Stephanie – Missy is a nickname from birth, given to her by her grandmother. Skoots real name is Jacqueline aka Scooter Pie when she was little, now shortened to Skoots – don’t know why I do that, they have such beautiful names.

Now these two girls they are not exercisers so I was bracing myself for . . . I don’t know, something. What should have taken a few minutes to brush teeth, change clothes, find their new tennis shoes from two Christmas’ ago, and put on some fashionable sunglasses took one hour and fifteen minutes to get out the door. Although they are 21 and 20 respectively, surprisingly there was no primping the face and hair involved. I’m not really sure what they did. I’m not complaining, just explaining. So, off we went. :)

The temperature outside today was expected to be 93 degrees, so the way I figure it, now that it was 9:15 a.m. it seemed hot enough to make toast outside. I grabbed a cold bottle of water, the dog’s small plastic bowl (this bowl looks very familiar, is this from my kitchen %#@!), plastic bags for the dog (just in case) and my camera (I just love my new camera – you see I use my Christmas gifts). We all head to the backyard, like a united dream team to get our fourth walker, Marley the “g-i-r-l” dog , who is being babysat by my husband (who wonderfully has taken a liking to the little pup).

Marley, just 11 weeks old, has literally taken over our lives and she doesn’t even live with us. She lives at Missy’s boyfriend’s house, who lives up the street from us. Everything is about the dog and they bring her to visit like a grandchild. We’ve got great stories, but the best story is the one about Marley being a boy, just until last week. I’ll have to save that story for another time. Back to the walk.

We are finally on our little walk through our neighborhood. It turned out to be a 45 minute walk, no big deal right? Actually it was a little more that just a walk through the neighborhood, we walked through the hills and heat with a pup that tires after 5 minutes investigating the backyard. Marley was doing real good, we were just into the first 25 minutes of the hike, I mean walk. The girls and I talked about different things, movies, shopping, work, school, boyfriends, you know the usual. It’s a good thing we had so much distraction that there wasn’t much complaining from the dream team. We stopped every now and then to give Marley some water (by the way we sipped sparingly wanting to save it for the dog). We were doing just fine as we approached the second half of our walk. It seemed we all realized at the same time that the incline was increasing as well as our own body temperature, our sweat glands and our thirst. Sweat was now dripping down our chests and foreheads and we suddenly wondered how the dog was feeling. Then we heard this little “yelp”! “Marley, come on pup, let’s go”, Stephanie said. Well, little Marley had had enough. Who knew that we shouldn’t have taken a little pup on such a vigorous walk, much less on a day when the temperature was expected above 93 degrees. Take a look at Marley’s picture. A photo is worth a thousand words (I'm new at this web-thing - I hope I can upload the picture).

We carried her pretty much the rest of the way. UP THE HILL ALL THE WAY HOME! It was tough enough for us to carry our own bodies, not to mention the added weight of the dog. We traded back and forth, laughing, taking pictures, and searched for shade whenever possible. We made it! THANK YOU LORD! IT’S A BEAUTIFUL MORNING. We have new memories (and yes, Marley was fine after some food, water and a nap). Who’s cooking breakfast?

You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. -- Colette

Wake up with a smile and go after life . . . Live it, enjoy it, taste it, smell it, feel it. – Joe Knapp