26 June 2020 – Oh, forget the Circus of Sunshine. Here comes the Circus of Pleasure — pleasure for its lithe young participants, and for anyone else in Jonathan Rogers Park at the time, who happens to notice them.
I almost don’t.
I’m busy watching a patient woman tirelessly hurling a ball (from one of those hurling sticks) for her eager Border Collie. Again & again, he streaks across the field to chase it and then prances back in triumph the way they do, all head tosses, quick paws and waving tail.
So I almost miss the other performance on offer. This one is human, very quiet by comparison, and limited to the dimensions of the young man’s body length on the grass.
Still, something makes me look beyond the oblivious couple just there on the lip of the park’s main bowl of space … and notice that other couple straight-line beyond them, mid-field.
Really? She’s not just getting all friendly with her boyfriend? (As in: oh please, we are decorous Canadians, save it for home?) No, she’s not. This is serious acrobatics.
I start paying attention. Look: a series of moves, one foot in each of her partner’s hands.
And look: now hands to hands, her hips to his feet, and stretched horizontal above him.
And keep looking: the moment of levering upright to a hands-on-hands handstand.
I am slightly tempted to tell you she held a flawless handstand for 5 seconds before precisely folding her way back to earth. But that would be a lie. She held the pose barely a nano-second before over-balancing and crash landing on the turf.
There is no need, no motivation, to lie. Indeed, a lie would disrespect them. Distant as I am, I can hear their laughter. They want to get it right — but they are also just having an extremely good time, enjoying their strength and their skill and each other and the fresh breezy day.
dianaed14
/ 27 June 2020As usual so readable. Free entertainment then!
icelandpenny
/ 1 July 2020there always is, isn’t there, if you just look, and then see…
Lynette d'Arty-Cross
/ 27 June 2020That’s a lovely story! 🙂
sloppy buddhist
/ 28 June 2020It’s like I’m there watching Penny…it’s joyful ~ I do love the west coast…plotting and peeking about…time to leave etown and Alberta ~ smiles and hugs Hedy
icelandpenny
/ 1 July 2020thank you! I want you to feel you’re there with me! come visit, when it’s safe…
sloppy buddhist
/ 2 July 2020We’re back in etown now…but for sure Penny it will happen yet!🙋♀️☀️
bluebrightly
/ 3 July 2020That was a great moment to see!
icelandpenny
/ 3 July 2020it’s the serendipity, isn’t it?
bluebrightly
/ 3 July 2020Yes. We had some yesterday when we went over to neighboring Whidbey Island. The tide was very high in the afternoon. While exploring back roads we happened to stop at a small county park with a slice of gravely beach and lots of nice waves. Along came 3 surfers! Believe me, surfing is not a normal thing this far from the ocean. But sometimes the waves are big enough. It was fun to watch…I imagined I was in sunny California for a minute!
Zambian Lady
/ 13 July 2020I was tempted to say that woman is me, but you would have seen through me, differences in race notwithstanding. 🙂 They definitely made my day through you…
icelandpenny
/ 14 July 2020love this — I think when we see something wonderful like that, we all fantasize about being that person!