Classes are over for the semester, so it was my first free Wednesday evening (not including vacations) since last summer. I made good use of it by sitting on the deck until darkness fell.

These are days that beg us to linger and look. Days of leafing and blossom when it is enough, I think, just to witness, to be part of the human race.

Looking won’t keep the azaleas in bloom all summer, or the lilac scent wafting around the yard. Looking won’t halt the leafing of the trees or the greening of the grass. But looking makes these small miracles mine for a time.

(A poppy’s eye view of the yard.)