Miscellany

“It was nighttime when I heard suspicious noises coming from outside. I rose from my chair to find out what was happening. As I approached the window, a person crept into view carrying a shotgun in the ready position. As she turned to look in the window, I could tell she had seen me. She instantly lifted the gun and took aim at me.”

“Now it is November, my favorite month. November calms me. It comes, blessedly, before the rising pressures of Christmastime. It brings soup season, and a good book by the fire, and brisk walks. Whatever the year has held, things seem to exhale in November. The projects and chaos and messiness of the inevitable activities of spring and summer tend to be winding down, at least here where the snows of winter arrive to muffle the bustle.”

“It was a perfect day for splitting logs: fresh breeze, cool, sunny. I enjoy this sort of work, with its rhythm and sense of accomplishment as the pile of large pieces is processed into a pile of more usable sizes. Pick up a log, place it on the splitter’s horizontal surface, pull the hydraulic lever, wait. Let the machine do its job. Easy-breezy.”

“Well, my goodness! It’s been months since I have written a blog. At first, back in July, I fretted about losing my twice-a-month goal, and letting down my faithful readers… What a summer it was, one of abundant (self-induced) chaos and disruption, on the heels of a fairly disruptive spring (also self-induced). Autumn? It’s been a little nuts, too.”

“About forty years ago, I gave myself one of the finest gifts ever: the reframing of an interior life that was dark, depressed, and negative. Learning a new habit to choose a fresh, upbeat approach to my days was demanding work… Gradually, I was able to build a new way of life…”

“Think back. All that isolation, all that fear. All that mask fashion! All the neighbors, coming out at 7pm to make a grateful racket for the first responders and essential workers. The clear skies, and wildlife sightings in places which had seen none for decades. The empty streets and highways and airports. The Zoom classes…”

“As my mind slowly rises from the depths of sleep, I awaken in a state of pure, leisurely relaxation. The birds outside my windows are singing, but otherwise, I am surrounded by stillness of the sort that fuels my soul. More than a quarter-century of rising to the rhythm, the feel, the air, the sounds of this place has made of it an exceptional spot to call home.”

“Having a sense of belonging is an embedded human need. Family is the first and, for many, the closest group any of us has. It is certainly where we first learn what it means to belong. Whether a family is spare in numbers, like mine, or ample, like this one, each is unique…”

“…Ever since Friday, February 24, my extended family has had the joy and trepidation normal to all that comes with greeting a newborn into life. Yes, what everyone has told me (and which I never doubted), it is life changing. Along with her parents, her other grandparents, her aunts and uncles and cousins, and her other many admirers across the globe, this little girl has been heartily and happily received.”

“I treasure the way Thanksgiving is so unassuming. It is outward-facing. It is simple, and demands nothing in return. It offers space for quiet gratitude for the positive and good things of the world and its people. Thanksgiving is about so much more than gorging on a dressed-up meal and getting out the door to the Black Friday sales.”

“…I have always admired Queen Elizabeth II. Say what you want about the monarchy, the woman herself was truly special. Her reign of seventy-plus years included giving birth to four children while (oh by the way) serving an Empire. Time and world events pressed in constantly, but somehow she maintained steady, reliable composure in the face of innumerable governmental, personal and social conflicts. Impressive.”

“…like water, life moves in waves that are mostly akin to normal tides, coming and going the same regular way we move along our everyday baseline routines. Some of our life-waves are gigantic and crash hard… Then there are those that rise like a surfer’s dream, higher and higher to be ridden with joy and pleasure…”

“The contender arrives at the start of the event believing in the possibilities, and more often than not goes home without “winning.” The contender is a lost name, over time. Who ever remembers even those with the silver or bronze medals, much less no prize at all?”

“From low in the eastern sky, the waning crescent moon shone into my window at 3:18 this morning. After an hour, I decided to get up and have a good long visit with this moon. It beckoned me, first through the eastern window from my bed, and, once I yielded, through the south-facing glass slider door by the fishpond.”

“November! Already? Ahhh, November. To me, the arrival of this month is like smelling cookies in the oven—a happy, tantalizing thing. I welcome November because of its urgency, prodding those of us living in the northern realm to finish preparing for winter and come inside out of the chill air… Another reason among many: November hosts my favorite holiday: Thanksgiving. Two of my favorite things, in one word: Thanks. Giving.”

“The topic of risk has been hot lately. Maybe it is age, maybe it is experience, maybe both, but it seems as if people are more cautious nowadays. This is simply an observation, said without judgement, but it makes me wonder: where has all our courage gone?”

“It’s gonna happen. You and I and the person across from you at the diner: we are all gonna die. It’s only a matter of time. For a few years now, one of my jobs has been as a Medical Examiner Investigator (MEI). The more I assist families in the wake of the death of a loved one, and the closer I get to my own Date of Demise, the more I ponder what my aftermath can be like in terms of the body my soul will be leaving behind.”

“Here, I’ll just say it: I love the Olympics. I just do. I love the Olympics so much that even when we couldn’t afford our own television in the summer of 1984, we rented one for the two weeks of the Los Angeles Olympics.”

“[After] starting the final load of laundry… I heard an uncharacteristic thumping sound and fretted distractedly that maybe the washing machine was going on the fritz. “I wonder what that is,” I thought… Something must have fallen into the dirty pile, maybe. As the muffled “thump, thump” continued, my curiosity was nudged a couple of more times, but only vaguely… Stupid washing machine...”

“In one year, something invisible without magnification has gripped the entire world in its clutches. Not a person on the planet hasn’t been touched, and will continue to be touched, by this microscopic enemy. Crazy.”

“…it is possible to employ calming balms during fever-pitch times of fear and anxiety. The choice to use them? Well, that’s yours. Wrapping yourself in calm is a self-directed strategy. But the effort can work well, and is worth the effort… When we’re able to step back from the fray, we gain perspective. When we quiet our minds, they can refill with welcome awareness.”

“About forty years ago, I gave myself one of the finest gifts ever: the reframing of an interior life that was dark, depressed, and negative. Learning a new habit to choose a fresh, upbeat approach to my days was demanding work… Gradually, I was able to build a new way of life…”

“On the evening of the 2016 election, I decided to entertain myself with a contest to see how long it would be before I heard the word “2020." It happened (no surprise) in minutes. In so many ways, it’s been a long four years.”

Just now, while renewing my morning tea, waiting for it to steep, Tuesday’s dinner drifted back into my awareness. Looking around at what there was in the kitchen, I polled my tastebuds, wondering, “what would be good?” The idea of Mexican food bubbled up, seemed interesting, appealing. “Hmmm,” I mused, “maybe that’s a good idea.”

“It was three days before Christmas, 1953. In an era when women often spent many days in the hospital after childbirth, the doctors told my mother to go home, to be with her family for the holidays. Her new baby was going to die anyway.”

“Normally, sleep comes easily and lasts well for me. However, for no discernable reason, one night recently, I woke up at 2:15am, and didn’t slumber again until after five o’clock. As soon as I was up for that regular nocturnal bathroom trip, I could tell that I was unusually wide awake.”

“Sometimes the sky is a great escape, a place where a person frazzled by the terrestrial world can send thoughts that seem to have nowhere else to go. Looking at the sky raises my eyes up, away from the fuss and bother of whatever is before me.”

“Who would have thought I’d feel like such a rule-breaker for having a scone and a cup of coffee. Yet there I was, delighting in these things while idling in the cocoon of my car on the city street, seeing people — people!—walk by, jog by, drive by.”

“One of my favorite Facebook posts of the pandemic was the one in which the human world exclaims, “There’s no way we can shut everything down in order to lower emissions, slow climate change, and protect the environment.” Mother Nature’s reply: “Here’s a virus. Practice.”

“When someone who otherwise self-identifies as a good human knows that a term can be offensive to another human nonetheless uses such hurtful words, I fail to understand why. This question has now reared its ugly head with the use of the term, “Chinese virus.”