A Day Off

My neighbor planted morning glories this year and their ephemeral beauty is a reminder of time passing - each bloom lasts just one morning.

The passage of days can make us feel determined, as in the "one day at a time" philosophy of overcoming bad habits, or morbid, as in Hamlet's "To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time." Or we may seize the day for enjoyment or advancement.

Friday was the kind of day that just drifted on for me. I was sticking around, waiting for packages. One came from Seattle with a very funny comic book that my daughter created for a class, and also a book of poems from City Lights Books in San Francisco, where she visited recently. The other package, with David Carr's "Night of the Gun," didn't arrive.

So time passed and the day was over. Maybe the Amazon package will come today. Meanwhile, I had no blog thoughts except to think of two other plants whose flowers last just for a day.

This dayflower - a weed, really - has exquisite petals that catch the light in an extraordinary way. As a child spending summers with relatives in Plymouth, Pa., I marveled at these flowers that occupied a corner of the yard. My aunt and uncle indulged and encouraged my early forays into nature study and writing and these flowers remind me of them.

Spiderwort is another one of those plants that offer up brilliant flowers each morning and look totally nondescript by afternoon. The plant is in the same family that includes dayflowers, Tahitian Bridal Veil, Wandering Jew and my new garden favorite, Purple Queen.

Friday turned out to be simply a day off from serious matters. I thought the comic book was hilarious and called Audrey to say so. I did a lot of little chores and left others undone. It was the kind of day my ex-husband used to declare a Mental Health Day, time to bow out of the big world and all its demands and obligations. After all, they will still be there tomorrow.

--Bernice Paglia