Vanilla ice cream.

Sometimes peace and quiet is as simple as vanilla ice cream in a cone on a hot summer day. No more. No less.

It had been one of “those” days in which nothing was really wrong but everything was “soooooo wrooooong.” The kind of day in which a sandwich was cut into 4 pieces and there were tears because it should have been 2 pieces. The kind of day when the sun moved behind a cloud at the wrong moment and it just wasn’t fair and there were more tears. The kind of day in which one person wants to paint sticks and the other wants to play in a sprinkler and this therefore must be the end of the world. And there were more tears. The kind of day when we needed purple socks but only had white. The kind of day when nothing bad really happened but you wouldn’t know it by the soundtrack of crying and whining and tears. All. Day. Long.

And then… at the end of the day (10 hours too late…) there was home made vanilla ice cream and sugar cones (not home made, but really, does it matter?) and a couple chairs on a porch in the shade and a light breeze. And peace. And quiet. For the first time all day. And it lasted over 5 minutes. FIVE minutes people. FIVE!! It was glorious.

So if I were my own best friend and it was one of those days I would remind myself that sometimes peace and quiet is as simple as ice cream in a cone. And if you want more than five minutes, make the cone and scoop bigger. Then sit and enjoy. Peace.