Wistful

~ Liz A
January 8, 2021 – Sidewalk

Some of you may recall this patch from two months ago. It was inspired by rocks on Jude’s land and the post included the hope that the Blue Wave might crest in Georgia on January 5th.

Thank goodness that hope was realized, although the light was temporarily dimmed by the afternoon’s insurrection. And by the feckless ambitions of Cruz and Hawley. I just hope we can hang on until January 20th.

Anyway, in keeping with my list of Many Small Things, I’ve been taking strolls through our neighborhood of late. It’s a tidy development of houses built 10-15 years ago. The street-facing facades are uniformly varied in shades of tan and beige, limestone and brick. The sidewalks are mostly even, the lawns mostly trimmed, the shrubbery mostly uniform.

And don’t get me wrong. There are lots of trees and it’s a diverse neighborhood of working families and retirees. But I couldn’t help thinking of Pete Seeger’s Little Boxes as I walked.

Thus it was the rock patch morphed in my mind into a sidewalk. And I resolved to seek out new paths to follow, to find again the joy of walking the land that was right outside our back door for the ten years we lived in the Hill Country.

Watch this space.

12 thoughts on “Wistful”

  1. nice intentions for the new year! Living in a dense suburb that might more properly be called an exurb, I have been surprised over the years by just how much beauty resides here — and I don’t just mean the turkey posse, or the lone coyote, or frequent red-tail hawk visitors, but the light on the shutters, the rock walls, the lilac hedges, children walking to school, patches of ice, or blue shadows on snow… and on and on.

    The Pete Seeger video looked like ad advertisement for White Flight! It’s funny, too, how very dated it looks, even as the sentiment/behavior still holds.

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    1. There is much beauty here, too … the hawk that perches on our back fence every so often, the sound of kids playing outside, the light from sunrise and sunsets, and the ever-changing moon …
      I just miss the plant beings and need to motivate myself out the door to find where they live around here

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  3. LA – new chapters start with the intention and desire to find new paths and experiences – once the chaos and pandemic has settled may you create a more joyful new chapter, B

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  4. Liz~ I love how Dee says it and your response. I ache to live away from the ‘sidewalk towns’ I’ve always lived in…but I do find the beauty here. I’ve always loved this song, which I understood that he wrote in response to the houses on the hills of SF. 🙂 We used to sing it at my beloved childhood camp at the close of the day, in our sing-along. I had a soft at the edges A-Ha listening today…I don’t think I wanted to be in that box as a student, but did in the family sense. Interesting.
    Your sidewalk reminded me of those sidewalk games I posted about years ago…creative chalk games by neighborhood children on my work walks. 🙂 Which circled back around to my first thought when seeing the square, ‘innocence lost’. Can’t wait to see where you go with this!

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    1. I don’t think I ever went beyond “getting” the houses as boxes lyric … it was eye opening to comprehend the rest of the lyrics for the first time today (or if I did understand the import at one time, I have long forgotten)

      And yes, I have embraced many societal expectations over the years, some for better, others for worse

      Last, at this critical day and time I wonder, where do we go from here? And how many more times must we repeat the cycle of crisis without true resolution?

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  5. there’s something to be said for uniformity in the building Liz, let me explain:
    in my street no two houses are alike, some of them are dreadfully ugly, tasteless even, according to me, as I’m sure the occupants would disagree;-)
    if it were up to me, there’ld be more wooden houses, romantic porches, higgledy-piggledy cottage gardens, less stone terraces, less tackiness, no pretensions, et cetera
    there are many trees though and lots of green, in all its varieties: boring, uplifting, inspired & inspiring, old and new……
    glimpses of beauty everywhere, and on a frosty morning like today even the messy plant-remnants look enticing, namasté

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  6. I like the calmness of the uniformity of colour in the patch – there is interest, yet there is calm. Its great to then head off a/wandering and pondering with you about the beigness of things. It is true that you have to work harder to find the moments in the regularity of the suburbs; but they are there and you shall discover some new favourites, you will visit and remark upon the changes during the year, or the glance of the light upon them…It is good have your list o many small things to accompany you this year. Go well.

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