The best days

I have done nothing today....  nothing except sit and chat and hold and Love...  Curled on the couch with the other half of my spirit...

Sometimes it is enough to do nothing...  Sometimes it is perfect to do nothing...

Sometimes nothing = happiness

It was a fantastic day.

lighter than air...

Taking a stroll yesterday to do some small errand I invented in order to take a stroll yesterday, I was captivated by the beautiful day.  The sun was shining, the air was crisp and cool but tasted brand new and fresh.  It was still and calm and despite the traffic and the construction it was peacefully alive.  If I stood still, breathed deeply and looked up so that all I could see was the tip tops of Boston's skyline and the deep blue of the sky it was as if - just for a second- the world stood still and became relaxed.  While this undoubtedly generated some odd looks from passersby, I hardly noticed.  It is a gift to be able to find a moment for yourself in the hustle and bustle of American life. 

During one such moment, to my utter delight, I discovered I was not alone at all but sharing my patch of sky with a glorious Red-Tailed Hawk...  

Anyone who knows me will know that I love birds of all kinds.  However within the bird realm 

the raptors are my favorites...  The sleek and deadly hunters that drift with effortless ease on currents of air... So free, so beautiful.

Even on the streets of Boston, with no wilderness for miles in any direction this wonderful bird, feathers fully spread to catch the hint of an updraft off the pavement and rooftops, spiraled as effortlessly around a building as its cousins do around mountains.   When it alights on a rain gutter or window ledge to survey its domain of brick and tar it is no less proud than its cousins who alight on treetop or cliff edge and look out upon field and forest.   A supreme example of adaptability and finding a place in life that I think could benefit a lot of people these days.  One that I try and live by - trying to find a 'home' in everyplace I've ever been. 

For just a moment this master of the skies took me with it. Up, up, drifting right and down, following the streets and dodging cranes, back left and up the glass face of a building.  For a moment it showed me its world and made me lighter than air.

A simple smile...

Nearly every day I wait for the bus at the same station at pretty close to the same times.  Every day the crowd is a little different, some familiar faces, some new.  One face is always there though.  Each and every time I'm in the station a large beggar woman comes up to me

"Hey young man! Can you afford to spare any change for a lady today.  Just a few cents? Makes a world of difference in my bones, those pennies!"

Nearly every day I legitimately have nothing to give her but admiring her persistence I can usually manage a smile and a cheerful "sorry" with a shake of the head.

Without fail, her reply is:

"No worries young man.  A smile is more than I usually get.  Warms my soul"

and she meanders on to the next group waiting for the bus. 

This simple exchange never fails to leave me smiling and often wondering what the world would be like if we all went about our jobs with cheerfulness and simple gratitude?

Pretty close to my philosophy exactly....

But most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it’s also not impossible. It just depends what you what to consider. If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

- 

David Foster Wallace

Red Light Moment: Tractor v. Truck

An amusing moment from my ride home today...

Stopped at a red light at a 4 lane intersection.  We were in the far left "turn only" lane behind one other car.  In the lane immediately to the right of that car was a tractor/loader/backhoe combo and to the right of him was an electric company truck.  

Sitting minding our own business when we realize that the tractor and the truck are reving their engines and squeaking forward in the attitude of drag racers waiting for the light to go green at the start of the strip.  At first I could not believe this because it made no sense in my brain... but sure enough, after continued observation they were definitely jockeying for position.

We cracked up... There is something extremely amusing in watching a piece of excavating equipment and a small box truck engage in the rush hour equivalent of "mine's bigger than yours".  The guy in the car immediately behind the tractor didn't look like he was quite as amused as a 2 ton backhoe rocked back and forth 4 feet from his windshield amidst the sound of high RPM engine noise...  but I can forgive him for that.

The light turned green...  Predictably the box truck blew away the tractor, which, lets face it, isn't exactly built for 0-60... ever...   and we were off again back into the commute.  How often can you say you watched a box truck win a drag race though?

More good advice...

ANYTHING is possible :-)

Borrowed thought...

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.

— Dale Carnegie

Makes one think about life philosophy eh?  Stop and smell the roses... no matter what form they might take for you.