Sunny Day in January

Today, this sunny mild January day in the 50s reminds me of a day when I was about 5 years old. The last day of winter over 60 years ago.

I was outside playing on the concrete stairs that led from the basement to our backyard. The stairs had a sturdy railing painted black that protected one from falling into the well of the stairs as well as helped steady oneself when going up and down the steep stairs. At the bottom of the stairs was a drain. Where it led to was a mystery, but whenever it rained my mother rushed to the stairwell and cleared it out, sweeping away the leaves and grass clippings so that water would not seep into the basement under the door. Clearing the drain for my mother was a constant worry for her well into her 90s when she finally had to move from the house she lived in for 60 years.

On that last day of winter, I remember that it was so beautiful and bright. The kind of light that you only see in the winter. When the sun can stream through the branches on the trees that have yet to sprout their new buds.

I was playing alone on the stairs with my soldiers. Which war I was reenacting I can’t remember.  I had so many soldiers. But it easily could have been WWII as at this point the end of that horrible war had only been over less than 15 years. It still lived in the front of everyone’s mind, even those who had not actually gone to war.

Such a beautiful day that last day of winter.

The other part of this memory was that the next day, the first day of spring, was cold and windy with snow flurries. Looking out the big picture window from our living room this reality was so confusing to my 5-year-old mind. It just seemed impossible that this very cold day was the first day of spring when the last day of winter was so warm and welcoming.

I continue to look forward to the first day of spring and this year I hope for no snow flurries.

A Book of Days

A Book of Days by Patti Smith

366 days.
I have read January.

Photos, comments or captions and sometimes poems.
Should I read it straight through?
Or one page for each corresponding day?
What about February 29?
Wait for a leap year to read it?
I think there’s one next year.

I don’t want to read the entire book at one sitting.
I want to savor it. Read it slowly.
I am thinking of reading a month of days at a time on the first day of each month.

If I want to I can reread the current month as many times as I want over the course of the month.

This will give me something to look forward to on the first of each month.
A much more pleasurable task along with paying bills and the mortgage and cleaning the kitchen drain with baking soda and vinegar.

One month at a time.
To make it last all year.

————————————————————————–

The first Patti Smith book I purchased was Seventh Heaven.
I purchased it in August 1977.

I still have it.