Why did you stay ?

Ours is an old house.  Hot in summer, a little drafty in winter. Needs a lot of attention all the time, always has for all of the 30+  years we have lived here.  Why did we stay, I don't know. It was a good house to us, we have been happy in the house, unlike some of the families I see in larger, newer but not necessarily better houses about us.    So I don't know why we stayed.

But if I had to think of one reason why, it would be one word, Porch.  It is 10 feet wide, 30 feet long, covered by a roof and furnished by the usual assortment of chairs and gliders and tables of the outdoor variety, my wife decorates with hanging baskets and plants and flowers.  It is comfortable, when my wife puts aside her chores and sits the company could not be better.  It is the spare room for three seasons of the year.  There is no television to distract, It is an observation deck on the town.
Sit and watch, sit and read, sit and listen, smell the air see the birds.  Feel a little of the joy of life, which I think we are intended to savor.

Last evening as a refreshing breeze blew through the area , we sat and read, chatted, pet the dog and relaxed at the end of the weekend.  It was Sunday evening, an the usual Sunday evening quiet had settled on the neighborhood.  The noise had gone out of life and it was ever so pleasant as the sun drifted down in the sky, casting its last rays in a bright light that filtered through the spindles of the rails.  It was this sort of pleasantness, repeated many times over the years that caused me to stay.

I will put up with a lot, just to enjoy an hour or so on the porch.