“Refining rural flânerie”, I sometimes respond when questioned by amused admirers or interrogators. And it’s nothing but the truth. Not the *entire* truth, of course, but an accessible on-ramp to the truth. Today’s billet-doux, a gloaming gilded moment, might be a better response.
In response to lifted eyebrows or a verbal nudge to say more, I might simply show them this snapshot. Or the one below. There are so many.
They’re not portraits of Rosslyn, for she is slightly elusive, not inclined to pause for portraits. They’re snapshots, so many lyric bits and bobs, so many sketches and field notes of our relationship with Rosslyn. Taken together they tell a romantic story, the whole approaching a semblance of some sort. And yet she dances mirage-like just beyond the art of portraiture.
This billet-doux à Rosslyn suggests a simple sort of poetry, now eleven years old, but still pulse quickening. Encouraging. And while supplementing “refining rural flânerie” with the whole truth might prove too esoteric or incomprehensible for some, I’m tempted to tell our story.
“I’m falling in love,” I might have said then. By June 22, 2014 I might even have said, “I’m in love.” Yes, probably, by then. And now too, though Susan and I both know it’s time to be letting go. Time for untethering. The heart, however, generally fails to follow timelines and deadlines.
The 2-person Adirondack chair at the top of this post of the pair silhouetted at sunset have been positioned and repositioned all over Rosslyn’s grounds across almost two decades. Peripatetic perches for mid-meander pauses, observation, and contemplation. Invitations to linger and let go, to discover the unfamiliar, the unexpected. To notice nuances. To experience serendipity.
So, yes, rural flânerie, but mostly as a means of courtship. We, of Rosslyn. She, of us.
And now, in this billet-doux — a long-form caption to a pair of pictures from those early heart-throbbing days — I relive the courtship. The seduction and heart-strain, the infatuation and angsty uncertainty, the striving to please and crushing disappointments. Falling in love is a peculiar adventure, at once exhilarating and terrifying, bold and vulnerable. High highs and low lows. Constantly. So alive. So in love.
What do you think?