Kitchen Tables

I was given a book this week to read entitled "Kitchen Table Wisdom". I liked the title and I'm enjoying the stories. I find that it brings to mind all the kitchen tables I 've sat at, leaned on, mused upon, and bumped up to for a mighty fine dinner.
I think my favorite is really just a small drop leaf square wooden table. It is squeezed in a sunny, square paned window alcove in my friends kitchen. It's often stacked with bills and mail.. A hummingbird feeder is a side glance away, and an early blooming camellia hugs the window frames outside edges. Huge rhododendrons tower next to a cherry tree that rivals any Washington DC postcard every Easter season.
As tables go this one isn't at all beautiful to look at, but the memories of good times spoken of and remembered echo off its marred surface.
Ive sat there many times while my friend, who loves to cook, slices and chops and prepares appetizers, pours me a glass of wine, as she prepares birthday dinners.We chat and gossip and catch up on general doings. We reminisce about all the times her kids sat here and giggled there way through dinner. She's listened to me moan and groan..about jobs and husbands and diets. We talk about books and walks in the woods and neighborhoods. The table now often serves as a place where she rolls out dough for her granddaughter to make cookies. Its not a big table or a polished marvel, but I think its one of my favorites.

Oh what a difference A Year can make

I reviewed what I wrote last November, when the harvest was in and the snows were beginning to fly in Baker County. At that time I had no idea we would purchase a new home in Florida and spend our next winter there. Or here as it now is. This November morning was sunny with a tiny hint of cool to the air.The dogs and I walk every morning. The suns shines. The air is warmish and filled with perfumy frangrances I havent yet identified . Hibiscus is blooming. The sandhill cranes and Great white egrets hang in the neighborhood yards. I miss people and conversations but I feel WARM. And I like it. We shall see my friends, we shall see.

Mixed Blessings

My husband and I are soon to start a new adventure in our life. We will winter in a different place away from our beloved immediate families and friends and our place. We are looking forward to the new sites and adventures. We are grateful for the opportunity to be able to experience all this adventure.
Meanwhile, hard health problems persist for many. The dichotomy of experiencing fun and joy while such severe suffering goes on is difficult to reconcile.
I wish there was a magic wand to cure all pain, rid the earth of great personal agony and insert joy instead.
So, for Uncle Bob...I wish thee great health and peace and blessings; For my friends dealing with surgery...now and future, I anoint thee with magic fairy dust to promote quick healing and better than ever use of limbs.For everyone with pain- physical or mental, may sun lift your sorrow and let it go away.
If it was only so easy.

Laughing Trees of Summer

"That tickles" giggled the tree, as the sprinkler showered droplets of water on the grass at the base of the sturdy trunk. "It makes my toes laugh". Leaflets wiggled with joy in the summer breeze. A gold finch twittered merrily high in the branches. Frogs croaked in the shadow of the moist roots.Thats what I imagine the tree outside my kitchen window was saying this summer. It was such a happy site. I was sure the whispers were giggles.

Why are we important?

Picture the universe as a dress. A single thread woven into fabric does not seem like it makes any difference. Picture a slight pull on a single thread; a significant flaw appears in the outfit.We are like the threads. Each one is important for the whole, maybe not notable unless something goes awry. But the strength of each fiber makes the whole strong and long wearing and beautiful.

DEATH

This seems a bit grim for a spring day topic. But the more I consider it's fabric in life, I get that it's Ok to die. Eventually and far down the road I hope. But, it is OK. If you believe in a religion or not or care how you end up for eternity isn't really the point. It's that in this reality, as we inevitably age, we get cantankerous about new ways of doing things and look contemptuously at the young and bold. We get to like the comfortable and old and familiar. We must make way for the young and new. Our model of evolution must continue to evolve. It's Ok to let the young take over. If they make a mess and have to re-learn all the lessons....I guess that is not different if this is Rome, Greece, or New America. Our aging brains rarley take to new fangled stuff. We drag our feet at leaning new tecniques. Why is that? And maybe, at last, we don't want to know how it all turns out.I'm hoping for a front row seat though on a nearby cosmic cloud with a long lens to peer at the antics.

Lessons

Why must we have to re-learn the same lessons again and again. Why can't the mind and heart absorb the deeply painful and soul stabbing life lessons the first time? I think we should have a buzzer when we react badly that makes us recall the corrected behavior pattern without having to go through all the painful stuff again. I vote for that.  Put my buzzer right on my forehead . Quickly before I say somethimg really dumb . Again.