The drums have returned

The drums returned tonight. A symphony of rhythm and vibration. Flashes of dark purple, deep red, brown, black. Jagged lines and sharp corners. Circles slashed in pieces.

And what has brought them back? So many things, some controllable, some not. Several days of excessive heat and code orange air quality has increased the pressure. A strange dog came to visit way too early in the morning, disrupting the guard dog. And when the guard dog is disrupted, it doesn’t take long for the smaller ones to follow suit. And when all the dogs are disrupted sleep does not return.

Equipment failures added to the length of the outdoor workday. Meals were forgotten in the attempt to make repairs, liquids weren’t drank. Problems needed solved and were and time was lost in a sea of events. And then the storms started to roll in for the evening. The winds picked up, the air changed, the drums returned.

I don’t welcome the drums, but I have learned to live with them and learn from them. I’ll let them play their symphony, crash and bang. I listen to the reverbations, I see the colors when I close my eyes and wonder what it would be to work in those colors. They are not my normal color range. They are too intense. I hear their message, the message of self-neglect.

And then after a bit, when the symphony gets too loud, I lie in the dark, soaking in the tub. I wash my hair and massage my temples. I take the medicine. And the symphony starts to lessen as the thunder rolls past.
The drums remind me about balance. Pain and sorrow are the balance to joy and ecstasy. Drums are the balance to the neglect. They remind me to take breaks, to stop for meals, to sit in the afternoon and have a cold drink. They remind me that I am alive and life is a good thing not to be taken for granted.

The air has cooled and quieted. The drums have settled down and left only a throbbing pulse remaining. A reminder of the combined power of nature and the body. The dogs are settled again, dusk is coming on, life continues. The lesson once again has been relearned.