If we were having coffee: Roller coaster of life edition

Sunset stretch.

Your heart will be shattered by sorrow if you force it to live in tomorrow’s ephemeral imagination -world instead of in today’s reality-now.

~ Sri Chinmoy

Tangier Sound sunset on Friday.

If we were having coffee or some other beverage, I would be delighted to see you again.  Hugs if you’re amenable to them.  A respectful nod or handshake if you’re not.  Come on in!  Let’s grab whatever we’re drinking, and maybe some snacks if you’re feeling peckish (I know I am!), and let’s go out to the three-season room (aka the back porch) where we’ll have a great view of whatever is going on in the backyard, and still remain warm and cozy.  The weather has really cooled off, hasn’t it?  A cold front moved through on Friday night or maybe it was Saturday morning.  I was half asleep or at least trying to sleep, listening to the rain, but didn’t note the time so it’s difficult to say with any degree of certainty that it was Friday or Saturday.  In any event, our temperatures are much more autumn-like now and it looks like it will stay that way for a while.

How are you?  What have you been up to since our last chat?  Have you traveled anywhere?  Visited any new places?  Have you gone on any good walks?  Seen any new sights?  Have you spent time with family or friends or maybe met some new people and made some new friends?  Have you seen any good films or read any good books?  Listened to music whose beauty whisked you away to otherworlds?  Maybe you’ve learned something new you’d like to share?

The Monarchs are still enjoying the garden.

Since our last chat, I finished reading An Imaginative Experience by Mary Wesley.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The book is about grief and love, and Wesley’s dry sense of humor keeps it from becoming sappy.  This is only the second book I’ve read by Mary Wesley, but she had a way of inventing the most interesting characters and putting them in the strangest situations.  This novel begins with a woman stopping the train she’s on in order to run out into a field and rescue a sheep.  Two men who witness her act will then become intertwined in the story and the woman’s life.

I am now reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things: A Novel.  It’s a fairly hefty book (512 pages), but I don’t think it will take me long to finish it.  Only about a fifth of the way in, I’m fascinated with the main characters, the plot, the history, and the time period (the Age of Enlightenment).  I’m finding it difficult to put down, and that is always a good sign when it comes to books.

Oh, hai!

If we were having coffee or some other beverage, I would apologize for being late this week.  I was sick on Friday.  I had an appointment with my doctor Friday morning and part of that visit included a couple of shots in the arms (vaccines).  By Friday evening, I felt as if I’d been hit by a truck.  After a long, sleepless night listening to the rain, I was feeling pretty exhausted on Saturday, but M and I had errands to run that couldn’t be put off.  I did fit in a porch nap after we finished, and felt a thousand percent better once I shook off the nap.  Sometimes naps leave me feeling bleary for a little while before the renewed and refreshed part kicks in.

Takin’ it Easy

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that it has been a week filled with highs and lows, ending with disappointment and some sadness.  Great highs can bring great lows.  Someday I’ll tell you all about it, but today is not that day.  Suffice it say that the good news I alluded to a few weeks ago is not to be, at least not at this time.

I was reading a daily meditation from the book Everyday Osho: 365 Daily Meditations for the Here and Now, and it starts with a bit about how people close themselves off so they can’t be hurt, and how that also closes them off to being happy.  He continues:

When you start becoming open, both things become available.  Sometimes it will be cloudy, and sometimes there will be sun.  But if you remain closed off in your core, then there is no cloud and no sun either.  It is good to come out, to dance with the sun, and yes, sometimes to feel sad with the clouds too — and sometimes it will be very windy.  When you come out of the cave, all things are possible, and one of the things is that people can hurt you — but this only one of the things.

He then goes on to suggest we think of all the possibilities, “a thousand and one possibilities,” not just the one in which you can be hurt.  Think of love and happiness, of laughter and celebration, of being available to all of life.

Cloud reflections dancing on the water.

Beautiful things can happen when you dance with both the sun and clouds, especially at sunrise and sunset.  It is good to remember that.

When it all comes together in the end.

If we were having coffee or some other beverage, I would move on to other subjects now.  Did I tell you that we are working on the front porch?  No?  You might have seen it on your way in.  Things look a mess out front right now, but it will be lovely when it’s finished.  It should come as no surprise to those of you who have been following this whole-house renovation that we found trash under the stairs, and that pulling up the floor of the porch was an adventure as well because instead of fixing an obvious water problem, the previous owners relied on covering it up.  You wouldn’t believe how many layers of plywood were there, all of them in various stages of rot from water.  It would have been easier, and probably cheaper, if they had diverted the water rather than let it continue to run on to the porch when it rained.

September 27, when we started taking things apart.

M will probably be calling me any minute now to come out and help him cut the decking.  It’s in long strips and he needs someone to help him stabilize it while he cuts it.

October 3. Not sure what we’re going to do about the pillars/posts. Probably try to repair the old ones since new posts will be expensive.

If we were having coffee, I would suggest we take a little walk if you feel up to it.  It is a beautiful day.  It was a little chilly this morning (the temperature was 48°F when I rolled out of bed), but it has been warming up quickly.  It is supposed to get up to 70°F or so by this afternoon.  We could check out the scrounger’s garden to see who is visiting today.

The scrounger’s garden is busy this time of year.

Then we could stroll through the woods to see what’s popping up out of the forest floor.

I know where to find the prettiest mushrooms.

The meadows are nice this time of year, too, and I know where the magic happens.  There is a spot where the butterflies like to gather in the fall, and now that the sea and wax myrtles have gone to seed, it is an enchanting sight when the sunlight hits it just right.  The fluffy seeds float through the air like small stars or fairy dust, and the butterflies add their beauty to the mix of colors and flight.

Myrtle seeds caught in a spider’s web.

If we were having coffee or some other beverage, it would be time for me to go out and assist M with the porch project.  Thank you so much for visiting today.  I always enjoy your company and our chats.  Hang out here on the porch for a while longer if you wish, or feel free to wander the trails.  If you’re feeling really ambitious, another pair of hands would help the porch project go a little faster.

Capped.

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

Three on the fence.

This post is in response to Part Time Monster’s #WeekendCoffeeShare.  Put the kettle on, start the coffee maker, open a bottle of wine, or whatever your preference is, and join us.  I’d love to hear all about what you were up to this week.

A memory: Three years ago.