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Hail Guest, we ask not what thou art.
If Friend, we greet thee, hand and heart.
If Stranger, such no longer be.
If Foe, our love will conquer thee.
-Old Welsh Door Verse

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Slow Motion

Slow as molasses in January.
I'm not feeling real swift.  My back has been aching all day.  When I went through orthopedic evaluation for a sore hip last year, one of the orthopod's discoveries per x-ray was that I have arthritis in my spine.  I wish he hadn't told me.  Now my back pains seem worse than before, just knowing the arthritis is there.  I decided to go to the gym anyway, but I was so draggy and my hips hurt so much on the treadmill that I decided to pack it in after just 30 minutes. (My gym visits are up to a minimum 1.5 hours, usually more like two).  I'm hoping it's just lack of food (I haven't eaten much in the last couple of days; life got in the way) and not enough sleep (only about five hours last night and it takes me a full eight to feel at the top.


Slow on the uptake.  Yeah, that fits, too.

Slow and steady wins the race.  
I loved this one when I was a kid.  I remember being in the neighbor's back yard.  Jeff was so creative.  He was the one who storyboarded a comic strip that we kids acted out in his garage.  I think I was 8 or 9.  Jeff was a year older and my brother a couple of years younger.  Anyway, one day one of us (surely Jeff) had the idea that we should have a race across his yard with our feet on croquet mallets.  I was older then (although we moved away from that street when I was eleven, so I wasn't that old.)  I won the race and remember quietly chanting "slow and steady wins the race" to myself all the way across the yard.  And I still remember how funny the boys were, all tangled up in their mallets as they tried to actually RACE across the yard.

Do a slow burn
Not usually.  Most of the time I don't bother with anger.  Disgust, yes.  I'm more likely to decide someone isn't worth the energy to get angry at, though, if they've done something worth getting angry over.  And if they aren't worth the energy, they aren't worth keeping as friends and our relationship is pretty much over.  But if someone IS worth the energy to get angry at, then they are also worth the energy and effort to try to figure out what the issue is from their perspective, which is usually enough to douse the anger.


Does this make any sense?


See?  Slow on the uptake.  


I think I need a shower, some moisturizer and an early bedtime.


Hey, gotta share, though! I had the most fabulous night last night.  Got to share ceviche (I made it and it came out great) with two new writer friends, then listen to them read (man, can they write!) for a while.  Wonderful, inspiring stuff.  Most of it unfinished, in process and I can't wait to hear the next parts.


On the way there I was driving down the coast (we met in Los Angeles, about 1.5 hours away) I peeked in my rear-view mirror and was dazzled by the almost-set sun.  You know, when it's a huge red ball surrounded by an orange haze, just about ready to sink into the sea.  Then, with just a slight shift of my head I saw the huge new moon against a cloudless twilight sky, the same distance above the hills as the sun was above the sea.  How I wanted to stop in the middle of the highway and grab my camera (which was at home in the closet) to try to keep that for my own forever.


Some things you just have to accept as zen moments.

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