Your Trip Around the Sun

Has it been a challenging time for you over the past three months or more? I have found it had its moments of ups and downs and if I paid too much attention to everything going on around me, I could easily be sucked down into the depths of despair. So on times I tuned it out and turned it off – not because I am callous or uncaring, but for the very act of self-preservation.  Did you do the same? During those times, everyday living provided the comic relief needed to balance out and restore my psyche.

It was a Monday

It was a Monday that it happened.  It must have been, for there had been so many Saturdays and Sundays in that week that the lawn was in need of attention. You see, the weekends are not to be used for work – one of my policies, of course. But with so many Saturdays and Sundays everything was now long overdue. The grass was a foot long and there was a sea of yellow swaying in the breeze. The bathroom needed cleaning, the laundry was piling up and the dust was ideal for making happy faces and writing your name (Remember doing that as a child?)

It was early morning and I was excited to get started. Mondays are so much fun. There’s a whole week ahead to do everything. But first things first – plot out the menu for the week and prepare some snacks and meals in advance.  Now I don’t know about you but I like having things on hand for those times when I’m hungry but don’t have time to waste.  For instance, I usually have a bottle of pickled eggs ready and waiting – a perfect solution. I had made a point of buying an extra dozen for that very purpose.

So on that Monday morning, I put the pot on to boil and headed to the office to take a quick look at my emails. Along the way, I noticed the dehumidifier was full so I stopped to empty it. Back on track, I tripped over a pair of shoes in my pathway.  I grumbled at the person who could have been so careless – after all, I could have broken something. Having come to no real harm, I decided it best to put those darned things where they belonged for fear the next time the outcome would be different.

And THEN I Remembered

Now that set me to thinking of words that rhyme with shoes which, naturally, made me think of footprints, which made me think of social distancing. I could visualize all those wonderful little patches on the floors – the ones that keep us at the appropriate distance.  So what to do but sit right down and sketch a footprint and suddenly I remembered to check my emails.

It was about that time that I heard a faint “POP”. I stopped to listen closely.  It sounded like a light bulb blew.  Then I heard a second big POP; then a third. Then, I remembered.

I bolted up the stairs, two at a time.

Oh, but I just love Mondays!

Your Trip Around the Sun

It had all started with a dozen HARD boiled eggs, a footprint, and a laugh. Before the week had ended, the lawn was mowed, the bathrooms cleaned, the dusting done. But it got me thinking about footprints and how each of us find our way through this life. Every day is so very special. Life being as brief as it is, it is foolish to waste even a moment in time regardless of what is thrown at us.

Have you ever read the book, ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends”, by Shel Silverstein? Perhaps your first thought would have been that it is a book for children, so you hastily put it aside. Well I don’t know about you, but I find sometimes the most insightful thoughts come from just such a source.

This morning while making a birthday card, I was once again reminded of one of Silverstein’s poems,

“Oh look! Oh look!
Oh look what I’ve done
I found a way
to lasso the sun.”

I had borrowed a line from that poem and a phrase often used by my niece, Kaleigh Kingsbury, who treats every day as a blessing. The phrase is about the cycle of life and “her trip around the sun”.  Between Kaleigh and Silverstein, I arranged the words I needed for the card and I found the threads on which to weave another day.

On your trip around the sun

allow yourself to dream
and live each day with complete abandon
so that when you look back
you will be able to say

“I  found a way to lasso the sun”

May it be an absolutely wonderful trip!