January—the new year begins with day after day of grey skies and rain. I sit in a medical center. The light here is muted, the voices are hushed, except for those on the TV set, which no one is watching. I wait for a fax to arrive so that I can have a test done. Like Godot, the fax never appears. After three hours of waiting, I reschedule the test for another day. I walk outside to find it’s now sleeting. I travel home, only a few miles, but it’s another world, one of warmth and light. The cats greet me. My husband naps in front of the TV. I defrost some homemade soup for dinner for us and drink a glass of wine. It is dark now, but somehow the world seems brighter.
unrelenting clouds,
sun and moon sheathed in cold grey–
wind sighs lonesome blues
Warmth for body and soul
This Haibun is for Haibun Monday at dVerse, where Kim asks us to write about January. This was my afternoon yesterday. Thank goodness I had a good book to read. In case anyone was worried, I was simply getting a routine test to check my bone density.
Like Godot… waiting for a fax… somehow I think this is a lot like January… moving slowly…
Thanks so much, Björn. Yes, like the ox! 🙂
It is so dreary here.
Grey and dreary, sounds familiar. Lovely contrast though with home where the slow warmth is welcome and ordered, not the time wasting slowness of a hospital wait.
Thank you! 🙂
It is SO grey and dreary.
Hang on. February’s usually worse 🙂
It’s cold AND windy here now. 😦
Oh dear. And we’re not even half-way through January yet!
way tastier than soup and sandwich … – tsk
Thanks. Soup and sandwiches are good, too. 🙂
Warmth of home is the perfect medicine.
Yes, I agree, Ken!
I love to be nuzzled inside when it’s grey and dreary, but venturing to work in those conditions is never any fun. We got sun today, but our winds are howling!
Thank you, Jill. That’s the weather we’re getting now. I’m seeing the sun come up, but the wind is picking up, too, and they say it will be windy for the next three days (and colder)!
That looks really yummy for a dreary night. Beautiful poem too.
Thank you very much, Holly!
Those tests can be long in the waiting. Hope the results are okay.
I love the warmth of the home and soup, contrasting with the dreary grey sky and rain outside. Indeed a different world inside the home.
Thanks so much, Grace. There is indeed a contrast. Everything should be fine with tests. Thanks!
Nice haibun – really captured the slow pace of January. Hope all is well.
Thanks so much, V.J. It has been so grey and dreary here, but all else is fine.
That’s good. This too shall pass.
🙂
A good day for soup … and good luck with the test.
Thanks, Frank. Just a bone scan–rescheduled for a couple weeks from now.
I had a day like that yesterday too. But soup and wine and cats make up for a lot I think. (K)
They do. Thank you, Kerfe. I hope your day got better, too.
It did, thanks.
Sounds like a pretty dense day too –
Thanks, Susan. Dense? I’m not sure. I felt like I wasted most of an afternoon, although I did get to read a lot of a new novel. 🙂
I like the colourful play on words in the title, Merril, and the muted light and colour in your haibun. So much grey and some lonesome blues. I smiled at ‘Like Godot, the fax never appears’ and the lovely warm ending to your cold day.
Thank you very much, Kim! I think we’re going to see sunlight today, but it’s going to be very windy. Sigh.
dense is nice – it has a sense of being full. That’s the sense I meant … 3 hours reading while waiting? Joy! And that lovely looking pot of food too – that too looked dense. And dense of course has to do with density – as of colour maybe, bones, Christmas cake … etc
Oh, I hadn’t thought or used dense that way. Thanks. Yes, the reading was nice, but the setting could have been better. 😉
I like how the world is brighter at home even with dimmer lights.
Thank you, Frank!
Well, it sounds like a crappy afternoon to me, but at least you have transformed it into art. I like the progression from the coldness and isolation of the clinic with it’s hushed lights and voices to the warmth of home. And that soup looks good.
Are faxes still a thing? We haven’t used them for years at work – not secure enough…
Thank you, Sarah. It did feel like I had wasted my whole day.
I don’t anyone who uses faxes, but apparently they do for this. I guess a doctor’s office that is part of a larger medical system can just transfer information online, but this is how they do it between two separate medical organizations?
Ah, bone density. I was worried, you know. And like you, I love that feeling of coming home to warmth and light and love after being out in the ‘cold cruel world.’
Thank you for your concern. No, nothing serious. 🙂
Glad to hear you are well and just having check ups!!
Thank you, Damien! Yes, just have to see how medication affects bones. 🙂
if words could have a taste then yours just did it for me! there is a step by step movement of a life filled with grace from this leaf of your January days. so very beautiful Merill.
Thank you for your lovely comment, Gina!
Catching up on my inbox… Nothing worse than waiting for a test and then coming home, test not done! My friend went for an operation. They made her wait, having fasted for the operation, for 6 hours before saying, sorry… we have run out of time, we’ll reschedule!
And is there anything better than soup on a cold winder’s day?
Thank you for taking the time to catch-up. I am so behind on reading for prompts. That is so awful about your friend. I hope she complained. I love soup. 🙂
Sometimes, I just put everything else aside 😉
No real good complaining frankly. Free medicare and all that means…. lack of services.
😉
I needed you explanatory note
Thank you for your concern, Derrick. Nothing serious.