Bailey on a past walk

I watched a single petal fall.

5:45 Saturday morning, April 30, 2016:

We tried using the AC last night to keep the pollen out of our condo. Yes, air conditioning when the temp outside is about 50 degrees. Cheryl suffers as if she had the flu. Didn’t work out, she still had a bad sleep…and our apartment was very stuffy.

Cheryl usually takes the morning walks but because of her restless allergy sleep I took this one. Outside with Bailey it’s refreshingly cool, now 46 degrees.

I walk to Neptune Blvd, then north. At Broadway Bailey wants to walk west. I usually don’t let her direct our route but I see she’s chosen a cherry blossom path. Who could turn that down? And once again…who is the wiser?

We walk with black boughs and blossoms above, a white petal-path below…all wet from the night’s light rain. Bailey’s paws have seen their share of snow and ice and salt, now she has soft petals to pad her way. I ask her silently, “Are we still in Long Beach, Bailey?”

I had realized when I left our apartment that I didn’t have my iPhone but didn’t walk back down the hall for it. Now I wished I had. Then I thought, “You’ll  just have to be present with what’s before you, not focus with a lens but with your self.”

What was a most remarkable and happy realization was that I was noticing that spring was still at high tide. Through my long years I often caught the blooms wilting, ebbing from their peak. I was too busy with work, appointments, reading or…TV! But now all was still fresh. All that was needed was to be with it.

Then a petal fell by itself, fluttering to the damp ground. I noticed a single…white…fluttering…petal.

Tulips to my right, crisp, white and scarlet petal-cups line the sidewalk.

Sparrows flit from cherry blossoms to the curb and the speckled lawns. Bailey spots, leaps and growls at them. I’m surprised the old gal can spot them so readily. But she does…and let’s them know who’s boss.

Bailey and I walk as if it’s our first spring, sucking in the cool air like newborns’ first gasps.

This walk was different for me, maybe for Bailey too.

Sometimes it’s best to leave the lens and just take your self.

It was spectacular.

I watched a single petal fall.

Be well,

Yeatsbythesea 🙂