After a week of soupy humidity and torrential rains, the atmosphere lifted and clear cool wind started pouring in. Yesterday was incredibly clear and it was like you were on acid, like you couldn’t believe everything was so special, so green, so clearly defined as being alive. It lifted everything, everyone’s spirits felt so light, so free from water, from the closeness and density of millions of microscopic water droplets crowding your skin, your thoughts.

This is the thick of summer: the tomato plants are like a science project gone awry, they climb everywhere, and tomatoes hang pendulously, but still green, with the promise of food to come. A huge bell pepper hangs, and you can’t help but to be afraid for it’s well being, hoping a chipmunk won’t take a bite and ruin the few weeks of waiting. Hurricanes come in without a moment's notice, whip things into a frenzy, and leave just as suddenly.

I walked down to the pond and sat on the bench, the breeze cool and noticed the water level was up. It poured this week. I was scanning the edges of the water and saw an egret, which I’ve never seen here, so I ran back inside to grab the binoculars. It was beautiful to watch, all white, pristine incredible white, with dull yellow legs and a black beak. Around it a few female mallards circled and seemed to want to harass it. It jumped up off its perch and landed on a dead tree that has fallen and hangs over and in the water. I noticed now that a few green herons were also perched close by, and then the mallards came into view right behind the egret and I noticed how small it was, how delicate and streamlined, compared to the plump ducks. The purple loosestrife kept blowing into my view, and as I tried to keep my eye on the egret, it turned into a beautiful painting, the purple, the striking white, and the lush green backdrop. You start to take green for granted these days.

In a minute it all changed, as the mallards nudged the egret into flight. I watched as it flew higher and farther, getting smaller in the distance, until it seemed an updraft had caught a piece of paper, which had fluttered away and disappeared.