A Rare Occurrence

A light breeze from the north stirs tree branches. Dappled light dances across the yard. The air is cool and fresh with the breath of the woods that embrace our house. The titmouse and oriole sing all day long.

This is the last day of June. Normally a strong south wind would be raising the temperature and humidity into the nineties. We would be closing windows and turning on air conditioning. Today’s beautiful weather is an anomaly to be relished. It calls to mind James Russell Lowell’s famous lines fom “The Vision of Sir Launfal:”

And what is so rare as a day in June?

   Then, if ever, come perfect days;

Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,

   And over it softly her warm ear lays:

Whether we look, or whether we listen,

We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;

Every clod feels a stir of might,

   An instinct within it that reaches and towers,

And, grasping blindly above it for light,

   Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers…

Rarely do these lines apply to eastern Kansas. This day is a gift of an ideal summer day.

Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer