So working has it’s ups and downs. For example, currently it is 4 in the morning. No, I am not working but I am awake. I have taken to falling asleep around 9:30 at night.

Now, in theory that would be a good thing, except if either of the children wakes me up, say around 3 in the morning, the chances of getting back to sleep are slim. Very slim.

But there are good things to working (3 full days a week). I get a welcome reprieve from my children’s very insistent voices (which I’m sure no one else can understand) and I actually get to listen to grown up music. No more Veggie Tales for me. It’s the BBC, NPR and INXS all the way!

Anyway, I’ve got a quote for you.

“I’ve always loved benches. They’re the image of a withdrawl, the seat of a contemplative distance, a peacful marginality at the edge of the world. They represent a privileged observation point, a disengagement off the beaten path for those who know how to pause there. I’ve spent many an hour on benches taking stock of the world. Some of them are marvelous, unexpected, outlandish, and each site is a revelation. Someone sitting on a bench is detached from reality, or no longer belongs to it. This simply seat confers upon the sitter the status of poet, and lends a certain breadth of vision. If ther is one place that ought to lie beyond the bounds of torment, it is the bench.”

That is from a book called Happy Days by Laurent Graff. I can’t really recommend it as I didn’t love the whole book, but that quote transported me when I read it.

I have the beginnings of a garden in my yard and I can fully and clearly imagine the experience of coming upon a bench placed just for contemplation and observation;a bench set neatly apart. Now our yard is tiny but I can design a space that is “off the beaten path” and self-contained in its purpose.

I like the concept of a bench being a sort of off-ramp for general exsistence. My life can be like a whirlwind. Yours too, I’m sure.

In these next months I have to navigate through some sucking waters and I am going to need benches along the way in order to reorient myself. I think that in the whirlwind of the last 2 years or so I never once sat down.