Bay Reflection
A Time To Be
by Lori L. Sikorski

We need time to dream, time to remember, and time to reach the infinite.
Time to be.

    -Georgia O'Keefe

New Mexico artist Georgia O'Keefe once said that we all have to find a time in our lives to just be. It seems her finest time to be came very late in life for her, when she picked-up her brushes and painted her life on canvas.

Seeing much of her work while I lived in New Mexico leads me to believe that O'Keefe did more than just be. She also lived.

At this stage in my life, I am longing for a little more of being and living. It often seems as if I am too busy to just be. There's too much going on. Too many to-do lists and too many miles I must drive to shuttle my family to and fro.

Yesterday morning, as I tossed our wilting jack-o-lantern into the woods - much to the squirrels' delight - I saw my neighbor hanging up his holiday lights. It didn't surprise me, though. Earlier, my husband and I had been thumbing through catalogs ourselves, "just to get ahead of the rush."

It was at this point that I realized it was my own fault for not finding the time to be. My husband and I both decided that we needed to just slow down and enjoy the day. A walk through Calvert Cliffs State Park was our solution.

Just over four miles the five of us trekked with no hurry in our steps. We gathered leaves along the way and took the time to find many hues of red from just one tree.

The colors against the sapphire sky took my breath away. I had been driving right past some of the most beautiful trees in Southern Maryland for weeks now without even a gasp.

We stopped to listen to the sounds of the stream, letting others pass us on the trail. It broke my heart to hear many ask, "Are we almost there?" referring to the turn-around-point, the Bay.

Guilt took over for a few minutes. At any other time, I am always in rush to reach my turn-around-point of the day. Today, however, I will leave that worry to others.

As we walk, I begin to think. Not about the work I have on my desk at home, nor the bills that need to be paid nor which child needs to be where during the up-coming week. I don't even consider how I am going to fix the roast I have thawing on the counter.

Instead I breathe the air, hold the hands of the ones I love and watch a beaver build his dam. I listen to the sound of the crunching leaves and the sweet laughter of the kids. As I take a drink of water from the bottles we have brought, I also take time to taste it.

Four hours later, as we arrive back home, I am more relaxed than I have been in weeks. I reflect on where I have just been. Not on the trails or with the beauty of nature but a place that has become unfamiliar to me. A place that Georgia O'Keefe lived all her life. A place with time to be.

Mother/wife/writer/chauffeur/NBT distributor/cook/PTA child advocate/dog companion Sikorski reflects from Lusby.

| Issue 45 |

Volume VII Number 45
November 11-17, 1999
New Bay Times

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