Musings from the hammock, Doubleday Inn B&B, Gettysburg PA

I'm lying in a hammock strung between two old growth shade trees on a green hillside overlooking Gettysburg College in Eastern Pennsylvania. It is sunny and warm, high seventies, with the blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds drifting by the B&B where I'm staying. There are irises in bloom on the hillside below me, bleeding heart along the path behind me, and birds singing all around me.

A little while ago I sat on the hardwood pews of the College Chapel, sunlight streaming through the stainglass windows, and watched my daughter receive an award for the research she has done while studying Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Apparently her investigations into the effects of nanoparticles on cell membranes was considered the most promising and useful research done at the college during her tenure. Tomorrow she will graduate with honors, and like her sister, make me even more proud by embarking on post-graduate studies, her in medicine, her sister in law.

This morning, before the ceremony, I rode my triathlon bike away from Gettysburg, through the Battlefield Monuments and out into the Pennsylvania countryside. I rode past farms, over rolling roads, and then into orchards of apple and pear trees. I made my way through the village of Ardentsville and then climbed steadily through a narrow valley that had a large creek flowing through it, the trees arching over the road. I was in cool shade, but could see the early morning sun hitting the tops of the trees on one side of the valley, the light bouncing through the leaves, soft and dappled by the time it reached me on the road. I rode past an ancient but still working saw mill, the smell of cut wood in the air, glacial stones occasionally causing the road to wind this way or that to make the ride more varied.

Eventually I reached the summit of a high plateau, the grasses already several feet high. Past a vineyard, over rougher surfaces I pedaled until I reached a high point where the road I was on led me to another that turned back towards Gettysburg. Down I raced, reaching speeds around 50 mph, back to flatter territory where my spinning feet powered me along, toward my daughter, her boyfriend, her sister, my ex-wife, and her family.

It has been a very nice day and I have remembered, for the most part, to stay in the moment and savor it. Lying in the shade, swaying with the afternoon breeze, a chocolate chip cookie in my belly, warm tea by my side, a good book to wile away the time, I feel content and at peace. I do wish I was with a lover, that romance awaited me tonight over a candle lit dinner, and up the stairs to the cozy room at the Inn.
I know that will come. For whatever reason now is a time for me to be free, to recover, to excel at my sport. I will enjoy this time while also looking forward to my next relationship, to the woman I will kiss, caress, please, laugh with, snuggle to, and love.

But for now I feel a nap calling to me in my hammock and I am going to succumb.