What Does "Calm" Mean?

After seeing, once again, how long it has been since I have posted anything on my blog, I thought I had better get something in here just so anyone reading this will know that it IS a long term, ongoing project and I WILL be back. I'm just snowed under with school work at the moment and trying frantically to remember everything else I also have to tend to as well. It will probably be another week to ten days before I get back here as I have a twenty-five page paper to get written and turned in by the end of next week! (SCREAM!!!)

It will be worth all of the effort and craziness once I am through the master's course, but in the midst of it all is a swirling craze of due dates and research pressures, outlines and writer's block - although that is not usually a problem for me.

It is also one of the grayest, drizzliest days in the world and I long for the encouragement of just a little sunshine and warmth before winter sets in and such things become mere dreams of glories past. Even the bluejays are depressed by the weather and the yard is silent. The cats are even restless, which makes me wonder just what sort of a weather front may be heading in our direction here in New England.

I think I will let my mind's eye wander to a beautiful summer day, standing on a pristine beach off of the Atlantic Ocean somewhere. I close my eyes and breathe in the salt air and listen to the waves crashing on the beach although they are not as big as they get during storms. I feel the warm sand on my feet and hear the cry of gulls in the distance as the sea wind chills the skin on my face, arms and legs. The sun is glinting off of my hair, keeping the chill breezes from becoming too effective. I think I will turn to my left and walk down the beach toward that little spot at the curve of the shore there, along the horizon. Along the way I will collect a spectacular array of seashells not normally found along the New England coast because this is my daydream and I can find tropical shells in New England waters if I want to. I will hold each of them to my ear to hear my heartbeat and the flow of my blood calling to me as if from the ocean itself, a cry for a return of a daughter to the mother sea that gave her and her species its birth.

The only draw back to my "little vacation" here is that a quick rub from a pussycat on my legs brings me rather sharply back into the gray and the rain again. Although, it is really very nice to be loved by a furry warm little being so special in her own right, and I do not mind the interruption so much under these circumstances. Fur persons' wishes for positive attention should be heeded with alacrity at all possible moments.

Well, it's back to the books and articles so I may give myself every possible chance of producing a successful paper for my class. I will assume that you all wish me luck and success in my endeavors rather than otherwise, as that would really make the day gray!