I opened up every window. I listened to my funny book on moral philosophy. I decluttered drawers and tackled untouched corners beyond the normal weekly cleaning routine. I’ve been trying to start fresh and wiping off the dust on the water heater is a small way to do that. As is organizing my desk and lining up my shoes and the dozens of small things I found to do. Shelf a book. Put my new registration sticker on my license plate. Rearrange the napkin drawer. Scrub out the ice cube trays. Sort through the personalized address labels nonprofits keep sending me.
Before that I walked to Alpine with my mom for a late brunch. I haven’t been there since the new owners reopened it and it was a beautiful day again today to explore the grounds. The food was delicious. The wait was long.
At the end of my deep cleaning spree, I went for another walk around the point, still enraptured by my audiobook How To Be Perfect—almost done.
We wait all year for summer days like these. Having nothing to do but meet the day as it comes . . . it’s calming me down, getting me back to my baseline after this last wild month.
Door County is like that for many people. It’s healing. The sun on the bay. The wind through the trees. The hummingbird visits the feeder on my balcony again and again. My cats fall asleep in the strip of sunlight on the windowsill. Sometimes we need to narrow our world so we can open back up again.
I met my mom again for dinner to get pizza uptown but we took our dinners to-go and retreated into our separate evenings. With good food and Merlin. There are worse ways to spend a Sunday night.
With Love,
Natalie