It's the Little Things/A Perfect Day in Chile

There is an almost sensual feeling one gets when you climb into bed and feel the slightly cool sheets on your bare toes. Not cold-I hate the cold! Yes, I've experienced it before(you can anywhere you live) but I don't think I reveled in the simple enjoyment of it until I moved to Chile, especially out here in the country. Maybe it's because there is little else to do but pay attention to the little things. Maybe it's because the cool nights all summer always ensure that cool sheet feeling. Maybe it's because life has been simplified to such a degree that I can appreciate those small pleasures better than before. Or maybe it's the physical work we do-cutting weeds, creating and tending flower beds, a labor of love but we do sweat like....well, like workers!

A perfect day, these days, is getting up early(to avoid the heat that will come later) and working outside for 3-5 hours, then a hot shower, a late lunch and a nap. Each one makes the next one perfect. A hot shower after getting sweaty and dirty, then even simple food for lunch is like the nectar of the gods, and culminating in a delicious yet well-deserved nap. That is truly decadence.

After a nice siesta, we have a some free time before dinner. I might play around on the computer while he reads a book. Perhaps we'll go back outside and survey the landscape and talk about what projects might be next. Or clip some dead flowers here and there. By then it's getting close to dinnertime so we leisurely make dinner while listening to Dean Martin(the tile floors are perfect for an impromptu dance in between) and enjoy whatever we've concocted that day.

After dinner, we take our coffee(or wine) outside on the patio and(depending on the time of year) sit in the dark enjoying the stars or watching the sunset. When our souls have had their fill of the dark landscape, we traipse inside and settle down in our room to watch a movie or have some more computer time. There is no particular schedule.

And I get in my my big t-shirt and settle in under the covers with a book(that I am re-reading because we've read everything we have) and my bare feet reach out for the cool sheets and I enjoy that almost sensual feeling again.