Howard's Assignment One

WRITE ABOUT A TIME IN YOUR LIFE
WHEN YOU FELT HAPPIEST ABOUT YOURSELF

In my near youth, I spent time...real time.

I traded it for colored beads and books on magic.  I spent half bushels of it on dreams that I tried to pin to cork board like dragonflies.  I gave it away to bums on the street and they spent it on beer.

I dressed in it.

When I wanted to feel the peace of work,

I wrapped hot time around my feet and let it keep my toes warm in the workshop.  It was in the glow of my lamp, and then in the soft curl of the maple shavings that piled below me like snow. 

It was caught like dust in amber sunlight before alighting on my skin. 

And when the work was done and the time was lost,

I traded in my scraps to buy more… one curl after the other for moments and days to spend.

 I poured all that time into the gas tank and barreled over the mountains of western Pennsylvania

to chase the sun. 

It was in those days I knew happiest wasn’t hard, and it felt like grace.

It was easy, like the sun in my eyes.

It was lucky, like the wind in my hair.

It was free, like the open road.