For two long weeks, I was sidelined from my voice lessons by a persistent cough and cooties. I couldn’t wait to sing again! And so it was that, ack! I showed up on my teacher’s doorstep a whole two hours early.

If ever there’s a place to be with time on your hands, Laguna Beach is it. I hiked toward the beach, a few short blocks away, reveling in the cloak of quiet afforded by the salty morning mist.

Inspired by Candice Ransom's recent blog entries, I ducked inside an Assistance League thrift store. Baubles and Handbags Sale! the sign announced, but that's not what drew my eye. There, in unfamiliar surroundings and with unexpected time on my hands, I was reunited with a dear old friend.



And boom! I was 9 years old again, sprawled on the floor of our neighborhood bookmobile, flipping through its pages.



Bookmobile Images via ark.cdlib.org

I paid $1.50 for this pleasure, tax included. 

As gentle waves lapped against the seashore, I reacquainted myself with the rhythms and rhymes between its covers. Some selections, if I’m remembering right, were instant favorites; others grew on me with time. I discovered some new friends, too, including a poem about hummingbirds, no surprise, and the last stanza of Song for A Blue Roadster…

Fly, Roadster, fly!

Leave Time behind;

Out of sight

Shall be out of mind.

Shine and Shadow

Blue sea, green bough,

Nothing is real

But Here and Now

~Rachel Field

…which is where I closed the book, leaving the rest for another Time.