Summer Indoors

The sky is blue, the wind is hot – our clothes hung at the yard dried quicker than ever.

The neighborhood is quiet save for the faint sound of AM radio being played somewhere. We’re back in our hometown, and living near the airport and the sound from airplanes would have been a usual thing to hear, but silence has become the norm these days. I’d like to think of it as earth’s breathing time.

Folks in my home are sound asleep for their afternoon siesta as I type furiously away, with only the dogs keeping me company – but most of the time they’re snoozing too. Even the hens, whom I’ve called out to earlier to give them some raw quinoa treats preferred to rest under the tree’s shade and could not be bothered. I check on Pedro every now and then, as being the old sweet bulldog that he is, he gotta go to the toilet after waking up from his glorious sleep.

I relish the different sounds of birds chirping as they drop by the trees in the yard. My aunt showed me a photo she took of a couple of love birds tweeting about on the mango tree. One was yellow with touches of green, and the other was blue with tints of gray. They were either set free or they escape their cage. I’m happy for them either way – birds should be free.

Now what was the topic I wanted write about today? It slipped my mind as I got carried away with the silence and simplicity around me… I guess I’d just call it summer in Metro Manila, 2020. Same old 34 degrees celsius but quieter and simpler than ever before. I’m counting the blessings.