Early Sunday Morning

In the quiet early morning

Of a warmish day in winter

When the sun is slowly rising

And the birds are all atwitter

You can hear your thoughts

More clearly as you sip your morning brew

And reflect on what it is

That means the most to you.

I really do love weekend mornings and Sunday especially. It just seems as if it is quieter, background sounds are muted and bird songs somehow sweeter. If there's a light breeze the wind chimes which hang outside my front door tinkle and ding with a pleasant melody of their own. Thoughts and reflections wander softly through my mind and a clarity for the week ahead makes its space waiting for those times that I need to go there for a momentary respite from whatever the weekdays toss my way. I hope you have a time when you regularly let your thoughts wander and create a place of calm to help you through your week.

These are the wind chimes that hang outside my front door. We bought them on vacation years ago and have hung there ever since, year round.

Change

And then she laughs,

It's what she does,

She laughs at the thought

Of all that was.

And then she cries,

Like she can't stop,

She cries at how she 

Came to this spot.

And then she smiles,

And lifts her eyes,

She smiles at the things

Life makes her try.

And then she sleeps,

And then she dreams

Of who she is, who she was

And who she seems.


"Don't ever change" and "Stay the way you are" are phrases written in probably every high school yearbook.  When we are graduating from high school we cannot imagine what will happen in our future.  It is a little scary and a lot exciting but we want to think that those happy fun times will continue forever.  We don't want things to change, and we want our friends and relationships to always be how we know them at that moment.


Life brings changes.  It's how we grow.  We don't always like what happens in our lives, sometimes we out and out hate what happens.  Loved ones pass away, or go out of our lives; sometimes they go for a while, and sometimes permanently.  Jobs, where we live, what we have and what we enjoy don't always stay the same. We can make that choice, or it can be made for us against our wishes.  But we must accept this thing called change.  Without change, how would we feel alive?  How would we know what happiness is if there is never sadness?  Resisting change in our lives is a futile endeavor but we do it any way because the familiar, even if it isn't good for us, is comfortable.  We know what it is and how to react to it; how to be ok with it even if it's not the best thing for us.  I can see some changes coming this year and they'll ultimately be for the better, but in some ways oh so difficult to get used to.  Time will move forward, and I will grow in the process of change.  It's what makes me who I am at this juncture of life.  We are always becoming someone new, dreaming of who we would like to be one day, and wondering who people think we are.  If we didn't care just a little bit about how others see us, would we change?  Would we grow? I don't think so because if we didn't care what our parents thought of us when we were growing up we'd be out of control as adults.  So we change to please them, we stop sneaking cookies before dinner, we keep our faces clean, we dress up for occasions which demand it and in the end we like these changes and adopt them as our own habits. In that way changing ourselves to suit others teaches us how to live in a society successfully.  So, too, the changes that come as we are adults keep us moving mostly forward toward whatever lies in store.


So maybe instead of writing "don't ever change" and "stay the same" we should be telling each other to "grow as much as you can", and "be happy with who you are". Embrace changes, become who ever you do and love that person.

Sunday Morning

My Sunday morning radio

Plays songs both sweet and sad

Sending my thoughts strolling

Through the youth that I once had

The world "back when" was different

And yet it was the same

We laughed and loved and dreamed.

It all circles 'round again.

Weekend mornings are my favorite times. I usually wake up early, out of habit I guess. The predawn hour is quiet, I turn on a soft, low light and have the local radio station playing just loud enough to hear from the couch nearby. It's this time of day more than any other that, armed with a mug of tea and a blanket, I let my thoughts run free. I write poetry, mostly in my head and write down only one and not every time. Some are simply thought, maybe wistful wishes that form and then dissipate as smoke in the wind.  Sometimes I get an hour or more for myself, without anything pressing to do. As long as Hillary remains asleep I have this treasured quiet time to myself.

Winter Joy

Many people say they don't like the winter; it makes them sad, they have to stay indoors or wear a bulky coat just to go to the car, and of course there's the snow and ice to deal with. I admit to feeling all those things about the cold season occasionally but other times I find good things about the season. Here are a few:

The first few sips of my morning brew taste and feel so much more comforting on a very cold morning before the heat comes up.

The night sky is clearer and the stars seem so much brighter on a crisp cold night.

The sounds of nature are different when all is dormant and frozen. Tree branches creak as they rub together, the wind whistles through the leafless trees, less birds twitter and chirp, and there is a special kind of hush over all when a storm is imminent.

The daylight begins to last longer after the winter solstice and by mid January it is quite noticeable.

Bare tree branches silhouetted against the moon's milky light remind me of lamp light glowing through black lace.

I can see the bones of the landscape and am surprised by things like old house foundations in the woods that are hidden by underbrush in the warmer growing season.

Finally, the smell of cooking food is very comforting when I come in the house from the cold, especially homemade soup which I have simmering on the stove.

I hope you have your own list of joys  to help you through the cold months.

Here's Dot!

Recently I was shopping in Kohl's with my older daughter and a lady walked up to me and told me I look like her friend Dot. But I don't have a cane & Dot uses a cane so she knew it wasn't her, but I have a twin! I have a friendly face. And she walked away. Good to know....

And that is how my alternate persona “Dot” was born.  Dot has many adventures, usually with my daughter.  Odd things seem to happen to us when we go out together. Shortly after the above episode we went to a concert my niece was in.  As we stood talking to my brother in the lobby after the concert the son of my high school band director rushed over, and smiling, introduced himself saying, “Do you remember me?  I’m Dave.” Giving me no time to answer, he shook my hand and turned to my brother, extending his hand.  My brother took the offered hand and said, “I’m Dave,” (because he is).  With that, the man walked away as quickly as he had approached and disappeared into the crowd.  It was a curious encounter which my daughter and I decided was a Dot thing.

A few weeks later we were again out shopping on a Saturday morning and decided to stop into the pizzeria next to Home Goods and order subs to bring home for lunch.  We walked in and ordered and took a seat in a booth near the register.  We watched as they worked and it appeared they were getting ready for an offsite catering job as well as making food for customers who came in.  After about 15 minutes all the employees began loading their catering van, carrying trays of food out the front door, passing us each time.  It seemed as if they forgot about our subs.  We watched with amusement for a few minutes and then I caught the owner’s eye as he hurried back inside for more of the food to load.  Realizing why we were still there, he asked one of the employees to give us our sandwiches and ring us up. We laughed once we were in the car chalking the experience up to another Dot adventure.

Just this past weekend I ventured out to our local Shop Rite along with most of the town it seems to replace the leftover holiday food with so called normal food since it was the end of the holiday break and life would be returning to normal on Monday. As I traversed the very crowded aisles and tried to look for the items I wanted I first did laps around the produce department because it seemed as if there was an odd traffic pattern of shoppers and carts happening and I kept missing my turn at the items I wanted so had to keep looping around. It was dizzying going in circles and trying to stop in front of the lettuce, peppers, and bananas. Once out of the traffic flow there I was able to make my way through the store.  Until I got to the aisle with coffee on one side and canned fruit on the other with several of those cardboard displays of featured items in the aisle.  As I inched my way along trying to find canned peaches while avoiding the other shoppers and go around the displays the wheel of my cart caught the corner of one and down it went, canisters of coffee skittering across the floor.  A very kind woman helped me right the display and pick up the canisters, several of which were lodged under my cart, and place them on the cardboard tower.  We then each continued our perusal of the goods and another shopper, new to our aisle, said as she walked by, “they have too many of these displays in the way,” I agreed and caught the eye of my helper and we both chuckled.  Another Dot adventure for the record!

Now whenever I have an offbeat encounter while I’m out, whether alone or with my daughter it becomes another chapter in the “Adventures of Dot”, a fictitious book.  Hmmm, maybe I should think about taking that from fictitious to real……