I’ve had an affection for hammocks ever since my parents bought one at Pawley’s Island when I was a little girl. For those who don’t know hammock history, this is like going to Jerusalem for holy water for your baby’s baptism. Pawley’s Island is where the real deal hammocks are made by hand by people who have names. You can watch them make hammocks. Novel, I know.
Anyway, my parents bought one for the gazebo at their lake house, and I’ve been swinging in it ever since. No, the one pictured is not THE hammock. This is the spare that I use at my home, but please note that it also is a Pawley’s Island Hammock because although I’ll buy the no-name brand for some items (think cough syrup), I’m completely top drawer when it comes to hammocks.
Any time I can lounge in a hammock with a book is a wink of goodness, and today was such a day. For almost a week, our area has been plagued by rain. Not just water, but lots of it combined with cold temperatures. For someone like me who operates on solar power, this is a complete nightmare.
So this morning when we were sitting in church, and I noticed a beam of light shining on my husband’s face via a stained glass window, I looked to the window and saw the sun. I immediately began plotting my hammock time. Some people would have thought that God was selecting my husband for an important task if they had seen that same beam of light. Not me. I was counting down the minutes until I could go home, change into my shorts and set up the hammock in the yard.
After feeding the kids lunch and straightening up the house, I went to the shed to fetch the hammock. I hadn’t seen it in months, so you can imagine how excited the hammock and I were to reunite. I set it up, grabbed a pillow, my book and my sunglasses and collapsed on my old friend. I fluctuated between napping and reading, napping and reading. What two things are better to do? Really.
Our cats, Jefferson and Hamilton, would peek through the bottom of the hammock to see what mommy was so happy about it. I picked Hamilton up and tried to coax him into cuddling with me on the hammock (complete nirvana in my book), but he preferred to sit beside me in an attempt to thwart any stress or discomfort that tried to enter into my personal space.
As I was lying in my state of grace, I let the sun drench my body. I couldn’t soak enough of it in. For a few minutes, a giant cloud eclipsed the sun, and it became chilly. I just continued lying there waiting for the sun to come back because I knew that it would, and I knew how wonderful it would feel to be drenched by it again.
I have no idea what tomorrow’s forecast is going to be. I could look it up, but I don’t want to spoil what I’ve got going on right now. Right now the sun is shining, my hammock is waiting for me and all is right with the world.