The Two Chairs

Roxbury, Connecticut © Steven Willard

Along  Squire Road is a house with a small pond next to which sit these two chairs. The house appears from the outside to be reasonably well kept; not overgrown and the paint in fairly good shape, but in all the times I’ve been by I’ve never seen a soul.

The chairs sit unoccupied, facing the pond as if waiting for a performance of some kind. Someone cares for the property; the grass never overgrows around the chairs, but I’ve never seen anyone mowing or picking up around the place. The chairs sit waiting.

Was there ever a time when a couple walked down from the house with glasses of lemonade or iced tea to sit with books to read to the sound of frogs and insects? Did the insects drive them off? In winter the scene can be somewhat dreary, but in spring and summer I can imagine sitting there for an hour or two.

Timing is everything they say. Perhaps people sit here often, just not when I happen to pass by. Or perhaps the demands on their time keeps them from using the chairs as they would like. That’s something that happens a lot. We buy the bikes that don’t get ridden or the boats that we don’t have time to use. I seems it’s harder to find blocks of time to relax and enjoy. We end up trying to make do with a few minutes diversion, but it’s not the same; relaxing takes time.

We all need more time to really relax, to decompress, to get away from the internet and TV. We need time for deep thoughts.

Perhaps this spring when the weather is better I’ll pass by and see someone sitting in one of these chairs, maybe there will even be a couple. It would make my day.

Pentax K10 D, 35mm f2.8 macro. Processed in Photoshop CS4 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.