The Visitor

Pin It I was sitting in my kitchen this morning reading up on blogs and such when I heard an odd out-of-place buzzing sound. Startled, I looked quickly around the room.

Out of nowhere swooped a fly.

I don’t know why.

This particular insect hadn’t been here before, and I started to wonder how it came to be in my home on a morning when the snow is falling in troves. I always leave for work in the early morning when it’s nearly dark out and freezing, and I return home again when it’s nearly dark and freezinger. In fact, I couldn’t recall having seen any flies outside for weeks, and yet here was this little guy coming from nowhere.

And why hadn’t I seen him before now?

Was this an early Christmas miracle? I thought. A reminder of something? Perhaps that summer—though seemingly gone—was still there, beneath the piled-up snow? An omen of sorts?

I began to wonder about this little bug as it landed on the ceiling and regarded me with its many-faceted eyes. For a time, I just sat and stared back, my mind spinning with the possibilities of how this little critter had come to join me for breakfast.

Then I sucked it up with the vacuum cleaner.

The Marrow of Life

Pin It It was Henry David Thoreau who once penned the words, “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”

What does this mean? What is he saying? Why did he say it?

While I cannot speak for Mr. Thoreau, and I guess it really isn’t that important to me, I know how this applies to my own life…

I was with a friend of mine tonight. We went out because of a life-changing event in the pathway she is walking. This event is not necessarily a good thing.

As we talked this evening and enjoyed our dinner—as well as each others’ company—I couldn’t help but think about the simple pleasures I have in this life. The things about me which I often take for granted. I hope you will forgive my indulgence by mentioning a few of these varied bits and pieces…

• Eating spoonful of cookie dough, as the sweetness of it beckons you to fetch a glass of milk.
• Walking on a brisk afternoon as the scent of autumn wafts about on the breeze.
• Watching a sunset as it sets the sky ablaze in an orchestra of color.
• Wearing a brand-new pair of flannel pajamas, and feeling the warmth of a blanket wrapped about you on a frosty night.
• The smell of freshly-baking bread and eating it, fresh off of the loaf, with little wells of melted butter like lakes on its surface.
• Talking to a dear friend for hours on end about nothing in particular—and enjoying each others’ company with so many common experiences we’ve shared.
• Watching the stars above you, as they watch you back on a warm, lazy summer night with an ensemble of crickets lulling you into slumber.
• Listening to that song…you know the one…the one I haven’t heard it in such a long time and then suddenly, there it is again. I love it even more than the first time I’d heard it.
• To shoulder a backpack and head out into the lonely windswept desert hills and not see another soul for days on end. It’s just she and I.

You might say that tonight was yet another reminder to me that life is meant to be lived deeply—and to the fullest.

“Live life so completely that when death comes like a thief in the night, there will be nothing left for him to steal.”

- Unknown

Charge it to the card...

Pin It Today was such a beautiful day and I was able to spend a portion of it with a group of good friends. It is moments like this which make time truly a thing of value.

I was taking some photos yesterday and I saw an elderly woman moving along the sidewalk with her walker. As I watched her I was suddenly taken with the thought that we need to enjoy each and every moment which we are given. It won’t be long before we’ll look back on these days and remember them with fondness—or possibly regret...I certainly hope that we won’t reflect on our lives thinking of the things we should have done, but didn’t.

As I sit here at my keyboard I find the lyrics to “Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen)” running through my mind. I would like to share a few of the lines of that song which reach to me…

· Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

· Do one thing every day that scares you.

· Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

· Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

· Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.

· Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

· Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

· Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on…because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Tomorrow is yet another day, and you know what? I think I’ll charge it to my Golden Life Card. After all—for the time being—It has no limits.

It’ s just a little bit odd

Pin It I pulled up to the gas pump.

The fuel gauge on my car read, “Empty.” So I wouldn’t be able to put it off any longer…not that I wanted to; I just hate those long lines that inevitably form at the Sam’s Club Gas Station.

When my turn arrived I hopped out of my car, membership and credit cards both ready and waiting. You see, I have a pattern, as I don’t like it when people pull up to the pump and then spend the next five minutes just trying to find what they need, forcing me to watch them in their ineptitude.

I’d rather eat shards of broken glass.

But as I said, I have a pattern: I pop the “fuel release” button as I jump out of the car, slide my membership card in at the pump, remove the fuel cap, insert my debit card, grab the nozzle, insert it into the car, select my fuel grade, and then begin to refuel my vehicle…this whole process takes less than thirty seconds.

As I was in the middle of my well-rehearsed routine, I noticed it…no, it wasn’t the $3.50+ cost for gas, but the fact that here I was, surrounded by other people getting fuel, and not one of us was speaking to each other. The woman on the other side of the pump was busy trying to get her card to work; the man in front of me had climbed back in his car…even though there were notices everywhere advising motorists to stay outside of their automobiles when refueling. Behind me was a line of three other vehicles, all waiting their turn at the pumps, each of them currently watching the “Zimmerman Show.” I did my best at leaning up against my car and trying to act cool…after all, if they wanted to watch somebody, I’d give them something to look at.

It’s all about eye candy.

As the pump continued to produce fossil fuels—as well as drain away my bank account—I spoke to no one. Nobody spoke to me. When my $50 purchase was completed, I quickly removed the hose, put the fuel cap back on, and re-hung the nozzle, leaping in my car and pulling away…

…still having spoken to nobody.

Now, just why do we do this? My only guess is that getting fuel is so personal of a thing that we just cannot share this experience with anyone else. OR perhaps it is instead that our collective breaths are taken away by what getting fuel really means...


Either way, it’ s just a little bit odd.