The serenity was there to be held, tasted, and clung to as a relief from the humdrum of everyday life.

“Can’t you feel it?” asked dad as another insect hit the insect catcher, and the silence was once again interrupted by the zap of the poor creature being exterminated.

Mum passed the plate of dip and crackers as we sat around, watching the sunset over the western sky.

It was part of our weekend getaway, the rush to get to the holiday house, a stop at the Greasy Fork for hamburgers and chips and then the customary sitting on the veranda admiring the beauty of the evening.

It never mattered that the electric transmission wires hummed overhead or the sound of the prawn boats out on the lake sounding their horns, and the voices of the prawners whose language laced with expletives wafted across to us because it was the serenity we all craved especially dad who could never get enough of it, or so he said.

Dad would sit out there long after we’d all gone off to bed, beer in hand and say he was just lingering a bit longer to soak up the serenity.

In the morning he’d be up early, as he believed the weekend was there to be enjoyed and we couldn’t waste a minute of it. He’d have his fishing gear all ready, wander through the house with his rooster call on his phone waking us and reminding us we only live once and we couldn’t go wasting a single minute.

Mum though got to sleep in; dad said she worked hard all week caring for us and making us meals that would invoke the jealousy of any restaurant chef, so she deserved a lie in till at least 8am.

Down on the lake dad would set us up with our rods, bait and fold-up chairs and it didn’t matter if we caught anything or not but rather that we were out in nature breathing in the fresh air and as he said on more than one occasion, as a high powered speed boat went by, ‘soaking up the serenity’.

They were great weekends, and we always went home on Sunday night refreshed and ready to face the rat race of another week knowing the weekend would once again bring us a healthy dose of serenity.

Written for: https://scvincent.com/2020/09/03/thursday-photo-prompt-serenity-writephoto/,