Porch Sittin’

This is an old piece that I wrote during a particularly trying summer with no real vacation. The fortuitous appearance of this porch reminded me of the importance of creating pockets of peace in our lives.

Everyone needs to spend a little time sittin’ on the porch. One recent summer, I found out exactly how therapeutic porch-sitting can be. After a very stressful Spring – endless rain, work – and lack of work – issues, money issues, dental issues – all the usual less-exciting aspects of life – a friend and I were able to commandeer another friend’s house for a few days.

This house is no place special. It’s a couple of miles outside a college town at the foot of the Shawangunk mountains. The house isn’t fancy. But it has a porch. It has a wide front porch with a deep, cushiony couch and a couple of chars to put your feet up on. The owner of the house had possessed the great good sense to buy up 26 acres of forested swampland across the street so that no one could build there. She left the old barn to deteriorate at its own pace. This view elevated the experience from simple relaxation to pure bliss.

What did we do on that porch? We SAT. And sat. And sat. It was wonderful. The cares of the past weeks slipped away like so many layers of shed skin. Time stopped. We couldn’t move. We sat. We stared into space. We stared at birds. And trees. And the occasional chipmunk. We sat. And we stared. And we breathed. Quietly. Evenly.

Sometimes, we roused ourselves to scratch our master teacher behind the ears. A loving bichon frise, he occasionally roused himself to shift from one free-for-petting hand to another. Sometimes, we roused ourselves long enough to devote attention to basic necessities. We thought about reading. But mostly, we sat.

I don’t remember the last time I was as relaxed as during those few days. When the time came, I didn’t want to get up and go home. But I still haven’t really left that porch. All I need to do is say "sittin’ on the porch" and I’m there. Porch sittin’, it turns out, is a state of mind. Do you take a little time to remove yourself from the world? It heals what ails you! Try it – sittin’ on the porch.