A perfect moment

Saturday was just an all-around perfect weekend day: slept in, enjoyed coffee and news headlines while I gradually woke up; dropped off two cakes to the family of a lady who is in ICU b/c of head trauma from a bad fall; made a home-made pizza for lunch (brie and prosciutto with mushrooms); worked out while watching Lost Season 4, and then housecleaned with A. until everything was spotless; changing out all the linens to fresh, crisp ones.

But the afternoon reached an absolutely perfect climax when I stepped outside to take out some trash and a cat ran up and rubbed herself against my legs. Then she followed me into the foyer of my building, so I grabbed A. We took turns sitting on the stairs with her rolling around on our laps in an ecstasy of petting.

Later, I sat outside on the front step, and the cat lunged into my lap and settled in for a good long while, resting her chin on my arm. In the shelter of the porch, we stayed dry as it rained and got blustery. It might have been cold, but the chubby cat kept my lap nice and warm. We sat there for a while as I watched the different kinds of trees wave and shiver in the sudden wind. Some lightning streaked across the sky, and the cat only looked up for a second as thunder rolled over us.

After a few minutes, the sun came out and a complete, perfect rainbow arced across the sky in colorful brilliance.

It was one of those rare, restful and richly sensory moments that I hardly ever have time to experience. I just looked up into the sky and said, "Thanks, God."