Weekend Wish List November 23-25

I especially love when I can really experience all that is on my wish list.  This weekend is already full into Saturday so I will also include those things that I would have wanted to do on Friday.

*Clean piggie cages (done! and what a task.....new piggies are here and they have a mansion. Note to self: Rethink how to clean that particular cage.)

*Take piggies out to enjoy cage free time.

*Sweep house. I happen to love sweeping.  It feels productive.

*Clean litter box.  Really, this is scooping.  And yes it is on the list.  One thing I do not like is walking into a home that smells like animals.  Mostly my own.  I refuse to mask odors with plug ins or other chemicals like Febreeze.  I will use candles and incense though to enhance good smells.

*Read today's paper.  And then try to delve into yesterday's NY Times.  And then try to read another section from another day to chip the pile down.

*Re-arrange the hall closet where the holiday boxes are.  I really didn't think that one out when I moved in here in April.  So now things must move.

*Put up the fake tree this weekend without ornaments. Time to do the test run with the cats running up and plowing into the tree.  Squirt bottle will be full and at the ready at all times.

*Make an attempt to affordably enjoy a bourbon.  Mmmmmm!  This one is probably going to be the ultimate fantasy on the list as it may not really happen.

*Answer correspndence.  I really suck at it.  And would like folks to know that I really am thinking about them!

*Meditate.  Ahhhh......   I used to enjoy a meditation by Laurie Calbot called the Crystal Countdown.  I am currently melding that with Marc Allen's meditations.

*Talk a walk.  I would have said on the track, but it gets dark early and I'm still loafing around.  Flip's dog needs to be walked so my walk may very well be the one down the dirt road.

*Remember those wonderful affirmations that help me bear in mind that things are super easy and can be done.

*Write in my journal.  How long it has been.  A blog is not a journal and there are things that will not go into a blog that need to be recorded for oneself.  

*Try to eliminate a pile or clear space where there was none.  

*Remember to stay graceful for it does not come natural to me.

*Reflect.  Think.  Create what will be through my current desires & specifications.  I can't do that with noise.  I must sit and really think, craft.  I recall my days of working in NYC.  I had so much time to dream, contemplate, wish, decide, while I rode the train for two hours one way and two hours back.  The mind was fertile and burst with ideas.  

*Check out the astrological weather.  Why not.

*Read some of Dracula.  I am still reading this book.  It's amazingly good I think.  I've seen the movie, but there is nothing like reading the author's words, and these words were writ in 1897, thereabouts.  

*Attempt to see the last installment of Twilight.  Oh, how I will try.  

Although I can’t be home every day enjoying the moment to moment blooming that happens during this magical season, I am grateful that the corporate campus where I work has quite the mini ecosystem. As I leave the building and pass the truck docks, I soon come to a small gathering of pine trees, the majestic holders of their quiet corner. Underneath are pine needles is soft and a deep breath will afford you that earthy dirt smell from these microscopic woods. Further down, past the sections made for stretchers and toners where they keep horizontal bars and wooden stumps, is the opening to the pond walk.

This is where I usually become more alert. As a starving reader who can never have enough time to soak in the words of others in the written form, I taught myself by age 21 to walk and read at the same time. Ok, I realize that this post can very well end up on the Darwinian award pages somewhere on the net, but really, so far, knock on whatever is eco-friendly and handy, I have not tripped and lost my front teeth, my dignity or unintentionally shown my underwear. Nor have I simply tripped. Or walked into walls. There are some clever co-workers who have fun with it and will walk directly toward me, hoping to win that first Noun prize – the first person, place or thing that I ever walk into (besides a bar! Ha ha! Well I AM Irish.) Yes, they are so cute and clever and who can blame them? I’d do it too I suppose. And I realize they are doing nothing more than simply reaching out in their own way to make some sort of contact.
Although walking straight into them full force with a book spine is probably not exactly probably the most pleasant.

I digress.

Whenever I enter Pond Area, my walk becomes the most alive. There are, many times, two of whatever creature is stirring. Two ducks. Two geese. Two turtles basking in the sun. Many tadpoles right now. A handful of birds. But mostly, for me, the presence of a Crow.
I realize that many folks associate the Crow’s appearance as a negative thing. I happen to love black birds of all types, but the crow is one of them that I look at and wonder to myself if I will ever pet one. Yeah, I’m forty and I said I want to pet one.

Usually, I will see only one at the pond. It might not be there at the moment I walk into the area, but then I have fun and say lightly and sing songy, “Black biiiiiiiiird….”. And then Snow White shows up and tries to kick my ass for nature rights.

What really happens is that within 20 or 30 seconds of my being in the area, a crow will show up or show itself somehow. I’ll be close enough to it so that we are aware of each other. Then I’ll say “Hi.”. Plain and simple. “Hi.”

The crow stays a moment and then flies off. I don’t know why I find this amusing, but I do. And it happens every time I talk my walks at work.

Other times there will be a small club’s worth of deer standing around looking all Gangsta. Deer do look Gangsta in case you didn’t know. If there is one of you and eight of them, it’s not very hard.

I usually stop under a Sycamore tree at the pond and sit, cross legged underneath, put my book down and attempt to meditate for a few minutes. I don’t work for Google or Amazon.com so it isn’t some extended yoga session. It’s literally five minutes at the moment but very peaceful. If you’re worried about looking like some kinda DAMN fool while other co-workers are brisk walking and chatting with their work wives/husbands, then I can’t promise that you’ll escape that feeling doing such a thing at work. I usually wait until it is Off Peak time for mine. I eat at my desk while working so that I can enjoy my alone time with whatever author out with Crow, turtles and Deer and the Gang.

The somewhat amusing thing (and it has to be amusing because you can’t take life too seriously when it isn’t warranted) is the Sign of the Dead memorialized near the pond. A metal sign, posted in the ground like a grave marker with a number of metal plates on it. Some of them are inscribed with those who have worked here and passed on. After those are a good number of shiny, unused metal plates, just waiting for someone to come unscrew one, have it engraved, and put it back on.

I wonder to myself if those people retired first. I don’t know why that is a point of any kind, but the thought of them dying before retirement makes me wonder how much they lived.
And that’s the point of squeezing in walk time. That’s what I want to do. I want to read and walk on Off Peak time. I want to have what communication I can with Crow as it swings by and then flies in the opposite direction, like a game of chase when I say “hi.” I want to feel brave (or alive enough to feel plain stupid) for passing a pack of degenerate deer (you can’t prove that they aren’t) on the same side of the path. And I want to look as though I’m waiting for a local and organic apple to fall off a Sycamore tree while I meditate for a splash in time. It’s about living my truth as much as I can…all the while learning what my own truths are and how they change. Because life is impermanent and it is change in every moment. As the saying goes, You never step into the same river twice.

Many Doors in This Cloud

I scheduled to take today off a couple of weeks ago. I was certain that it would involve Borders.



It certainly does involve reading and coffee. But it also involves:

~gas conservation by not driving across town to Borders where I will BMOB anyway and read

~financial conservation by not using the gas nor buying a cup of coffee with the change I will need to buy it on Thursday morning

~hammering down the laundry pile that was born sometime in the summer (complete with odd and not so reminiscent nor friendly odors)

~A fabulous kick ass walk outside!!! OMG Loveys....it is a very warm day here in CT. It's got to be in the 60s. I look completely stupid in my mismatching gloves and peacoat.

~all Humanling's gifts wrapped and stashed. In the kitchen. Top shelf of the pantry. Covered in a blue sheet. All uninteresting things to my Ling - kitchen, pantry (higher levels) and linens. If I keep them in my closet, I may as well just point them out to her since she believes what is mine is hers. Which really is mostly true anyway.

~The rehabbing of the dishes in the final phases. I didn't just ignore the blog for weeks....I ignored clutter.

~Being alone all day long with those Trader Joe's sexy truffles. They can go and go but I have to stop and rest after one.

~A wonderful morning meditation

~A Long Walk, Part 2

~Accepting the gift of societal sharing by sniffing the smoke tinged air in my apartment that seeps in from the apartment next door. It's not on my wish list, but it's reality.

Speaking of the scary crew next door, they've been evicted. One of them already left. Apparently he and his buddy divorced and the other guy won custody of the cigarette smoke, knocks on the door at all hours and parade of Shady kicks going up and down the stairs. The remaining guy, who has eyes the color of those Trader Joe's truffles, and a frontal demeanor that is most charming, will be bouncing his happy butt out the door in January from what I hear. I hope both guys will figure out what went awry for them and move forward into healthy situations.

I hope the next neighbor is a little more at ease with clean air.

I walked the railroad tracks to the house that is currently still up for sale that housed my past marriage. I know the other cares nothing about it. And I'm glad to be out of there too. I took a long look at it, searching the windows for evidence of my or our previous existence. It was everywhere. Even the Christmas lights and snowflake decor that I used last year in an attempt to make a Too Big for me house, more festive in the face of constant showings and interruptions. They are now all crammed into a garbage bin outside. I can't remember putting them there.

The house has a heart, I know it does. (Yes, you can tune out if my looney vibes are starting to freak you out, I won't be offended. No one gets offended in my world....wah ha ha!)

So I basically blessed it with love. Then turned to walk away, just looking back for a moment at the pitiful For Sale sign that had fallen off the post and onto the ground.

The rest of my walk was simply reading (yeah I do that) and saying hi to most everyone I passed. I did feel one tree's energy in particular as I passed.

Right now my Humanling is in an afterschool art class so I have extra time alone. I'm using it to make her dinner. My cat alerted me that the baby squirrel was on the deck. I checked and there wasn't much for it to nibble on so I grabbed from the Squirrel stash that I keep near the deck door. I grabbed a plastic bunch with disgusting black and green intentions underneath. Of course, I am cooking right now. I threw it in the garbage but still. It existed at the same time of the food on the stove. It existed right in front of my face. And now exists in the room still, but at a lower level in the garbage. My mind searches a million times....could it have gone airborne? Would it have gone into the food? It's in the wrap. I didn't have it open and run around the kitchen with it shaking the bag. I have to remember this. But hey, that's currently one of my Special Features. Until it isn't.