The Solar Thing

I was in the garden when I first noticed this thing. The glimpse I captured through the fresh morning air was something different, unusual, scary but exciting all at once. It’s the light I noticed first, well it was hard to ignore. I was only hanging out the washing totally oblivious that my dreams and faith about life and the unexplained were about to change forever.

I’d woken in my normal foul morning mood ! The mornings were already becoming darker and atmospheric with the inevitable onset of winter. This just made my morning moods appear even more hellish for me and anyone else within throwing distance. Before even opening my eyes I had considered the chores for the day, ’considered’ being the operative word ! If all I had to do was to ’consider’ I would ’consider’ doing nothing at all. Stumbling down the stairs however something did feel different, peaceful somehow.

The morning rush carried on as usual without peace, without tranquillity and without any organisation whatsoever. Jack left the house first, well groomed and leaving the usual trail of masculine scent as he does every morning, I can often still taste this at lunchtime, still lingering on my lips from the rushed goodbye kiss in the kitchen. The kids finally got into the car, still bickering about who ate the last biscuit, who had the cereal toy and who had left the muddy footprint on Sam’s homework. Then, finally came the peace, the harmony, the mess and endless piles of washing. I often considered how nice it might be to go to work. How much easier it must be for these immaculately turned out women who just desert their wifely duties, motherly duties and head for the city to go to their exciting, spontaneous, and well paid job (even if it’s not well paid, it must be worth escaping !)

So there I stood, in the garden, wrapped up in last Christmas’s dressing gown (nobody knew what to buy me, which explains how dull I have become !) As I hung the last wet, inside out shirt on the line, the intense light exploded through the trees, with instant heat as if I had jumped into the rays of the bright morning sun. Startled I stumbled out of my slipper and felt the wet, sticky, dewy grass beneath me. With one cold wet bare foot I stared, gawping at this unexplainable, extraordinary, brightness. The heat was so intense that had I closed my eyes I could have been in a tropical country. But I wasn’t, further still I was in my garden in the middle of October. Only seconds had passed but it felt longer when I felt the most warm embracing hug I had ever experienced, but just as I realised what was actually happening it was gone. The grey clouds moved swiftly over and I was left standing in the damp dull October morning.