Dear Maria,
Warm greetings to you, just days before cold weather comes
swooping down our way. Yesterday morning as I deadheaded the roses, I got a
good dose of sweet air from the tea olives that are now blooming. Nice. One of
this season’s roses sent a shoot up through the leaves of the new Japanese
maple. The headline is obvious: Knockout TKOs Maple with Uppercut. When the
bloom is fuller, I’ll post a picture to Facebook.
While checking out at Publix today, I told the cashier and the
bag, uh, man—do we still call them bag boys or bag girls? I am sure I am in the
wrong, but certainly another chance to crack a joke or three. My comment to
them was that placing just-baked sweet potato pies right inside the entrance of
the store was cruel. Cruel? That my life is so good that torture comes in the
form of a dessert that I can’t slip by.
Of course, I am thankful for how well it goes and have taken
to telling folks who ask how I am that if I complain, please shoot me, or at
least rough me up a bit. And now just two weeks until the tribal gathering and
a chance to soak in the blessings of my family. Reckon sweet potato pie will be
included on the menu?
Was reminded again over the past week more than once that
there is no point in wondering what another person is thinking. Just turns
loose the mental monkeys to romp about the cage. Okay, maybe not as compelling
as Macbeth raving about a mind full of scorpions. I tried to practice Thich Nhat Hanh’s sense
of watching the other person handle the moment or moments—badly paraphrased,
but I am too lazy to run down the quotation.
So rather than the mental churn, I tried telling myself
several times a day, oh this is how the experience is being processed. Of
course, someone may do the same with me. “Oh this is how Kaple handles this
moment.” Like an adult? Like a saint? Like a jackass? Well, I hope the moments
of my jackassery—jackassedness?—are fewer and fewer.
Alas, the forecast for a lingering polar vortex early in
November—well, let’s keep warm thoughts for our friends and family who live
closer to the northern rim of the country. Here, nearly 70 for now and lunch on
the patio.
Stay sweet, stay warm, and stay sane. The holidays come.
srk
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