let it shine

The sun is warmer now.

After my Morning Pages I flick on the computer to look at morning sites, and I always peek down to the bottom right of the screen to see the temperature. If it’s below 55 I figure it’s a sweatshirt-walk morning. This morning it was 52. But, I stepped out on to the small back patio before leaving for my walk, found a sliver of sunlight, and it was warm. It said, “Lose the sweatshirt, kid.” So I left a minute later, long-sleeve tee over tank top, down and up and out the stairs and crossed B Street to walk west in the direct sun. It was warm. I felt its warmth on my back. Like a friend. And the sun hasn’t done anything to make itself warmer than it was, say, April 14th. We’ve done the doing – tilting, spinning, us here in the northern hemisphere moving just a bit closer.

So, not having to worry about shivering or any such temperature discomfort, I was free to give my attention to other things – hummingbirds zipping in a front yard; a butterfly; the smell of a diesel motor; the entirely cloudless sky; the high-pitched call of what I knew was a hawk, and sure enough, one flew out of a tree a couple blocks over and downhill, a type of tree I really like but don’t know the name of. There was a tan-and-white cat responding to my “Hi kitty” by darting through a fence and under a porch, mistaking me, no doubt, for an unfriendly, missing out on a fun scratch under the neck. Hispanic girls playing in front of a school. The light stanchions of Petco Park visible down the far end of K Street. The colors and shapes of houses I’ve come to love. San Diego shining.

I ended up, as I usually do on these long walks – with or without sweatshirt – on the top step of the front steps of Our Lady of Angels Catholic church, up from the 94 freeway, peaceful despite the seemingly endless traffic hum, the sun warmth enough there and then to consider removing the long-sleeve. Which I did.

Is it a coincidence that when I first crossed B Street and left on my walk I was singing to myself, first, Gayle Garnett’s “We Can Sing in the Sunshine” and later, the Beach Boys “The Warmth of the Sun”? Honestly, I don’t know well enough how this mind of mine works, so, yeah, I’m willing to be it was coincidence. Life in a rubik’s cube.

All I know is I’m very lucky to have these morning walks. And that the sun keeps shining.