Odd what senses and memory can do.
No particular events, but of a sudden a warm memory. Very warm - it's summer, at camp. Sun is high, and I'm bounding through the higher grass just off the soccer field (there's a lot of camp that remains unmowed). The soft scratchiness and weight of an old flour-filled sock in my hand - we're playing Biffer. Light slashes from the plants I'm leaping through, part of my hair's worked loose from my ponytail and is clinging to the sweat on my face. The slight sunburn from tubing the day before is forgotten until I brush through the pine trees closer to the river.
Two kids see me, spaz, and take off yelling. I grin, loop the Biffer once and let it fly. Totally miss, run to pick it up, they're already at the far trees. No worries, running in the sunshine is the real point of this game, no matter what the rules say. The fine dust of the road is a comforting scritchiness in my sandals - every night, I come back to the cabin covered in dust from the ankles down. My girls are entertained by the stripes presented by my sandal straps. Big blue sky, distant conversation of the river, and the sunlight absolutely everywhere. You can't even think of winter - barely remember what "cold" is.
Everything is trees, and kids, and long grass, big blue sky, yellling voices, sunlight, running. Hear your breath as you pick up the pace, hear the crash as you leap over brush and don't quite make it. Hear and feel your footsteps pounding the packed earth as you run across the 'road'. Scent of the woods, I'm home.
I don't know what brought it up, but it crossed my mind the other day, and suddenly I was there. Feeling, seeing, hearing, tasting, sensing everything. Good place, good times. Can't wait to go back.
