it all depends

reflecting on reflecting

The day is far from over but I declare it a wonderful day. We are all alive, not an insignificant deal.

It’s Earth Day and we are receiving some gentle rain, much welcome as we at about 2/3 of the average amount. When I was planting earlier this week, I was startled by how parched things were. Of course I was potting so that should not have surprised me but I really think it had been damp when I got into things in past years. I have tried supporting those little plants with some water to sustain them.

We ran into a neighbour raking while on our Saturday visit to the bakery. We exchanged pleasantries to include, of course, getting rain as anticipated this afternoon. We three all agreed the much promised rain had not arrived earlier so perhaps today but no one was certain.

Well, the drops are right now gently hitting the grass, the hardened soil, and the sidewalks. We did just wash the car yesterday but hey, isn’t that always the case? It’s not the end of the world by any stretch.

I managed to burn not one but two things today because of my propensity to do far too many things at one time. I put something on to cook slowly, seemingly with plenty of water, only to follow a well-honed sequence a while later: Should I be smelling something? Followed by yes, I sure do smell something. Followed by the discovery stage of whether anything is salvagable. Hey, batting .500 in baseball would be so phenomenal, wouldn’t it? So shouldn’t I be happy the rice will be ok even if the beans are unrecognisable to anyone but me. Thank goodness one can use slightly overdone beans in other things if one is serving one’s self. The definitely cooked rice works well with other options.

Our beloved rescue Eleanor Roosevelt, probably about 18 and definitely in her kitty dotage, wanted to be fed before 6 this morning. Her sweet squeeky voice stabbed the quiet in case we thought she was elsewhere in the house. I was in stages of arising because I could not pass up a sunrise for photography but her insistent wee meow left no doubt it was time. What a beloved, if slightly unwelcome demand to assure we enjoyed as much of this weekend out of bed as she could enforce. But she is a beautiful girl.

The queue at the magnificent Bakers & Co. of Eastport had 11 folks in front of us this morning but it moved relatively quickly. Most days, people seem to kibbitz with the clerks, order-revise-reorder again, and take it slowlllyyyyyy. Today, people were cheery and quick so it was as welcoming as the green sprouts all over we saw all over town during our walk to and from the bakery.

I had two people comment most thoughtfully this morning about recent columns. That truthfully was so rewarding because it genuinely feels weird writing daily but often hearing nothing at all as if it went into a black hole. Both responses led me to think hard about what I had written, what my interlocutors wrote, and what you all would think about their points. Hard to be more rewarding than that, my friends.

At various points in my life, I would have let each of these anecdotes to spiral into irritations. Instead, I have truly come to appreciate that attitude is a big deal. I commemorate at least four things for which I am appreciative every single morning in a beautiful magenta-coloured notebook. Rarely after two years is it a forced exercise, instead an activity I anticipate fondly.

Those of you who email me regularly probably find it a stretch to say I am more upbeat and willing to slough off friction. I am far from Miss Contentment but I have found that life is so much richer to find a positive spin. You all probably already do that but I am, as I said the other day, into small steps to revise and improve life.

The play of life where each of us stars offers only a single performance, even if we do improve or deteriorate as it spins. Life is indeed not a dress rehearsal but it all depends on how you look at it.

I am delighted it’s still raining and they extended the thunderstorm warning for another 90 minutes. To quote Max Ehrmann from Desiderata,

‘With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world’.

Have a phenomenal Sunday. FIN