Reprieve
I'd forgotten how breath taking the beauty of a July evening looking west from our backyard could be. The sun is at it's most northern drop point on the horizon. In the other seasons, it is usually obscured by the hill long before it sets. This vantage point was visited often by me and my friends. I built a brick barbecue pit in honor of the spot. Our backyard was a sanctuary where Spring put on a grand display and came to represent for me the essence of existence. Rebirth. Life erupting in color - a theme that played out in abstract paintings I made. The barbecue oven was rarely used. The shoddy workmanship became an embarrassment over time, still it remained an icon to younger days when pausing before a staggering sunset, I "sucked the marrow of life" oblivious (thank God) to death and finality. Tomorrow I will knock down the brick box, put sod in it's place, and say "goodbye" again to another symbol of times passed.