Sweeping Under the Rug

As a kid, Saturdays were very special days.  No school and no church to have to go to.  It was a day to revel in being a kid.  Except for chores.  Like some kind of strange magic in the night, my mother would place on the edge of my bed, my Saturday to-do list.  It would be the first thing I saw when I awoke.

The list seemed endless.  Sweeping all the steps in the house including the ones to the basement, dusting the living and dining rooms, collecting the dirty towels for the laundry and straighten up my half of the bedroom that I shared with my older sister.  Which meant;  put my toys and books away.

Most of my chores I could get done well before anyone else in the house woke up, except in the bedroom as  my sister slept forever on Saturday mornings! She would crab and complain that I "was making too much noise" and she was sleeping so "go away!"

 One Saturday morning I got a great idea, to speed things up why don't I put all my toys under my bed!  I could do that silently, quickly and not disturb my sleeping sister.  Then I could get on with the rest of my chores and out to play. 

I'm so smart, I thought!  No one will ever suspect.  So, I proceeded with my plan and was outside wonderfully early.  I walked throughout the still slumbering silent neighborhood and watched as it slowly began to greet the day. 

I watched the skinny alley cats padding through the trash barrels and heard the blue jays call out their teasing and dissent.  Watched the paperboy toss the folded paper as it thumped on the front porches.

The morning was beautiful as the light grew and sounds developed throughout the neighborhood.  I went back home a few hours later to discover I was in the dog house.  My plan to clean up quickly had backfired and all my toys and books were tossed on top of my bed.  I was told, quite coldly,  that this kind of shenanigan would not be tolerated in this home "Young Missy".

In retrospect, I appreciate being held to a higher account than my shortcut thinking.  It is a lesson I have reminded myself of often.  However, I will never forget that magical Saturday morning as I was one with nature and the natural world unfolded in my presence.