Skip to main content

boxes and birthdays

My mother and I celebrate our birthdays this weekend. Mine was Friday, hers is Monday. Where to eat? What to do? I dropped movies off at the library while she packed up the garage. Not a thrilling way to celebrate, but necessary. I think it's time I remember what it means to celebrate life at all. Renew in my mind the awareness required to really honour one's own birth.

Remember that this moment is precious.

Thoroughly delight in whatever company finds its way to you today. Listen to their conversation. Don't just hear; don't try to converse. Ask questions rather than offer solutions, and listen.

Laugh at many things, but not everything. Do not laugh at the loss of anyone's dignity; prize and protect it. Stand up for the one whom general opinion shuns - unless it is not opinion, but right judgment.

Listen to music with both ears, with the brain, with the mouth slightly open, and with the eyes half-closed. But be willing to turn the music off when people arrive. Or when God says, 'have you heard a word I just said?'

And if he says it while blogging, publish your post and go.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kathryn, do NOT be jealous of me going to the opera. It was weird. They were wearing these bulky animal costumes and clonking boots which might have been okay except that their footsteps drowned out the sound of the orchestra (Oh look! A band!). The plot was supposed to be about the circle of life or something deep, but it really seemed to be more about animals getting it on. It was an opera, though, so plot really shouldn't matter as long as the music is good. It wasn't. I mean, it wasn't BAD - but most of the singing was monotonous, the orchestration was unremarkable, and I hope to heaven no one from the production reads this. It would be so disheartening! They were all skillful - I just wasn't interested in the piece itself. But then, I have only ever seen very classical sorts of pieces. The Marriage of Figaro. Samson and Delilah. And I was listening to Puccini before leaving the house! What do you do? But then again, I was distracted by my seating companion. Five so

window in the sub

Dear Nathaniel, I am microwaving pie that Mom bought up in Oak Glen this week on her way home from the orthodontist. As I put it in the microwave, I was full of sadness that I was not in Oak Glen with her. Why did I not go? I was working. I want to see the trees turn. I want to wander slowly through autumnal gift shops. Under the water, you cannot sense the approach of the seasons. Even here it is difficult because, after all, it's California. But I can still sense it. After three seasons in Illinois and one in Scotland, it must be with me for good. Or at least for a while. Because I am all abuzz with eagerness for fall and winter, for turkeys and dried leaves and Santa. I should start cooking again this fall. Fall foods are my favorite. Baked squash dripping with melted butter and brown sugar, pumpkin soup... this year, if I have enough money, I will put together a holiday dinner for my friends. And we will drink Scandinavian mulled wine, which is the most wonderful thing I have e
Someday, if there is a man trying to woo me and finding it difficult (unlikely, but possible), he need only put this on .