slowing down

Andy and his friend Kendra, lazing at the lake. My friend Wes and his wife and family visited us this week. They were making their way from the West Coast, across country by car, and back again. They showed up five days later than planned and so I was irked, because we have schedules to keep, damn it, and we have clocks to watch. We have things to do. It irked me until the minute they walked through the door, and then everything was ok, because I realized how much I dearly love these people as well as how much I need to chill out every now and then.

My friends brought summer with them. Honestly, that is what it felt like, and not just in their smiles and hugs and personal sparkling sunniness. I had not taken time to really notice, feel, taste, smell summer. We are always moving so fast. So I took the day off work and we lingered over pancakes and coffee. We piled into the van and lazily made our way through bookstores, beadshops, lunch. We went to the lake (I had no idea what time it was by this point in the day and I did not care), swam, laughed, lingered some more. Stopped on the way home for ice cream and cool drinks. Opened wine on the back porch. Meandered downtown to a favorite restaurant for dinner. Found our way to the porch again afterwards and watched fireflies and talked late into the night. I needed their visit. I needed someone to snap me out of my 65 mph ways, tell me we're going to play it by ear, tell me we don't need a plan, tell me they don't know where we're going next or what time we'll be back, tell me that sometimes it is ok not to know.