On the Road Again
I’m leaving tomorrow morning to drive to Chapel Hill, NC, where I’ll send the summer house-and-cat-sitting for my brother and his family who are taking a sabbatical in England. I’ve visited Chapel Hill quite often, but only for a week or so at a time — so going for the whole summer will be much more of an adventure.
I’m packing today and am trying to keep in mind my new intention to Simplify and Enjoy, but it’s a challenge. (For example, do I really need those hiking boots — there are woods near the house — or will my sneakers be enough?)
I’m not really sure what I’ll do in Chapel Hill, but I’ll definitely check out the Dharma scene, and I’ll continue to post, every weekday, like always. But it will take me a couple of days to drive there, and probably a day or so after that to get settled in, so don’t expect a posting until the end of the week, at the earliest. To tide you over, I offer this poem, which is not exactly a “dharma” poem, but I love it, so what the heck:
Night Drive
by Seamus Heaney
The smells of ordinariness
Were new on the night drive through France:
Rain and hay and woods on the air
Made warm draughts in the open car.
Signposts whitened relentlessly.
Montreuil, Abbeville, Beauvais
Were promised, promised, came and went,
Each place granting its name’s fulfillment.
A combine groaning its way late
Bled seeds across its work-light.
A forest fire smoldered out.
One by one small cafes shut.
I thought of you continuously
A thousand miles south where Italy
Laid its loin to France on the darkened sphere.
Your ordinariness was renewed there.
***
(photo by Nichole Robertson)