The Perugian Papers

Everything's perfect. The scene is set, the view is astounding, the weather divine and I have all the time in the world to write.
I sit down at the beech table and arrange my literary paraphenalia; the tobacco, the skins, the lighter, the ashtray.
The Ipad that I begin to write on is borrowed, but it's so easy to use.
As the first word comes to me, a huge wind blows, scattering my paper notes across the lawn. I get up to chase them (there are only two) but trip over the leg of the table in a vain attempt to gain ground on them.
Noticing that my tobacco has been flung across the table, I can only watch as the wind sprays it everywhere. There's no more tobacco in the house and I can't possibly write without it. The ashtray is emptied in the direction of my face as I pull myself up from the floor. My camera manual's pages snap noisily in my ears at the edge of the table and I imagine that they're telling me off for being so stupid. The ash is in my eyes. When I look up for the papers' whereabouts, I can only gawp at the futility of my venture as I watch them fly towards Perugia in the distance.
The tobacco has dispersed into tiny strands and swirls into nothingness on the patio and then into the grass. There are no blobs of it left to pounce on.
As I sit down again my brain is a rotten sponge half-drowned in the sludge of an infested cesspit.

God has a pretty warped sense of humour when it comes to human planning. My grey cauliflower has switched itself off like a lover denying sex at the beginning of the end of a one-way relationship.
All that's left on the table is my camera manual and my daily meditation booklets, which I'd forgotten to read this morning.
Too proud to drag my tail back into the house, I place one book on top of the other as a defence against this intolerable wind and start to read my meditation for the day.
'All of life is a fluctuation between effort and rest. You need both every day. But effort is not truly effective until first you have had the proper preparation for it, by resting in a time of quiet meditation. This daily time of rest and meditation gives you the power necessary to make your best effort. There are days when you are called on for much effort and then comes a time when you need much rest. It is not good to rest too long and it is not good to carry on great effort too long without rest. The successful life is a proper balance between the two.
I pray that I may be ready to make the proper effort. I pray that I may also recognise the need for relaxation'.

As I read, a door slams inside the house and dogs start to bark in the valley.
I best go for a sunbathe by the whirlpool.