Quotidian
[noun] of, or occurring, every day.
"A blade of grass is the journey-work of the stars."
– Walt Whitman
Here's to celebrating the everyday miraculous.
I simply remember
sitting in the yard at my grandparents, who were very proud of their Kentucky Blue Grass my grandfather seeded, and peeling single blades of grass in the summer sun.
– Megan
Sifting through
my front yard when the sun went down with my siblings & neighbors to find and catch fireflies together. That was always pretty magical, still is!
– Juliana
Once, on a trip,
I encountered a street vendor selling grasshoppers that were a beautiful, vibrant green. Turns out, the “grasshopper” was actually intricately woven fresh grass. Even though it's dried and gray now, my grasshopper remains a treasured souvenir.
– Adrian
Lounging in my backyard,
pausing my reading to watch my dog chomp on the high blades of grass.
– Joe
My son and I were out
at the Morton Arboretum on a peaceful fall day. He was seated in the grass and the movement in the wind and texture on his hands were brand new experiences to him. Watching a baby experience this for the first time reminded me of the beauty in life’s simplest things.
– Erin
The smell of freshly cut grass
reminds me of being a child in the 1970’s as my grandfather mowed his lawn with an old fashioned, engineless push lawnmower. Their yard was clover-filled and, without the interference of any gasoline exhaust from an engine, the fragrance of the freshly cut yard was overwhelming. Raking the grass behind him was one of my favorite times together.
– Tom
A living green quilt
might save you from urban noise,
grasshopper whispers.
– Leila
I take both of my dogs
on a walk every day. At first the walks were fast paced - a task that needed to get done. But they have evolved to be somewhat of a meditative practice for me. Allowing them moments to stop and sniff the grass also gives me a daily reason to slow down, breathe, and be present in the moment.
– Maggie
When I was a kid
playing with my cousins in the neighborhood park, we would run up a grass hill and then get on our backs to roll back down. Even though we were all slightly allergic to grass and itching by the end of it, we still ran up and rolled back down over and over again, just for the fun of it.
– Angelica
In the summer,
I make it a habit to stand in the grass barefoot as I take my dog outside in the mornings. The feeling of the grass is so constant, yet always changing. It can be cold and full of morning dew, or soft and freshly cut, or rough and dry after a week without rain.
– Alex
Summers were for climbing trees,
catching fish, and digging as deep as my turtle-shaped sandbox would let me. But the most memorable of those moments was simply laying on the grass and letting a red (not orange!) ladybug scurry across my hands. They had a certain smell that always brings me back to that place.
– Adam
I loved playing soccer
growing up. The field was a sea of green with white lines and goal posts just waiting to be filled with kids kicking the iconic white and black ball around. I played for many years and have great memories. Now my daughter is playing and loves it too. So I’m back at the sea of green and white to watch her score her own goals.
– Cori
Being an 80's child,
we did not have a lot of tech toys to play with, so in the afternoons, my friends and I would find the longest, tallest grass we could and fold the blades into small bags and baskets, or any shape we could think of, and play with them.
– Joan
The summer I turned 12,
I climbed a tree and spent the whole day reading The Hobbit. For a bookmark, I used a long blade of grass.
– Hugh
May your 2022 be filled with the marvelously quotidian.
