It All Comes Down to Light in Everyday Ramblings

As it grows my odd little eggplant gets more purple and less white. They are saying, (not those that control the weather, MTG), but those who report on it, that we are going to have a wet fall and winter. It clouded up and rained yesterday morning after a lovely sunrise. I admit, I found the gloom a bit dispiriting.

I did get a new reading lamp this week for next to the bed. I realized that I was not reading actual books, although I have a pile of them here next to the bed, or magazines, but only things electronically because I had no proper light source next to the bed.

I used to have a few small desk type lamps but I took them all to the church to help light the dim room I was teaching yoga in back in the day and as I checked a while ago when I was able to get back into that room after the worst of the pandemic they were all gone.

Do you ever get overwhelmed by all the things to read? I came across a new book this week when looking briefly at a Bookshop.org email and I immediately wanted it. It is not a book I need for any particular reason other than it might help with the poems I chose for my classes every weekday morning. But I am trying hard not to bring new things into my home unless I deem them necessary and a small, beautiful book called The Universe in Verse about the rich intersection between science and poetry is not one of those things.

At first, I thought, oh I will order it from the library. But the library is a mile and a half away and I am still dealing with trying to find proper shoes I can do a lot of walking in and then there is acceptance of the fact that I am not actually reading real physical books and it would be crazy town to order it, wait for it, go get it, maybe get a blister and bring it home and not read it.

This is what I did with another small book of poetry I was interested in about four months ago. I kept trying to read it, but I would get through one or two poems and get distracted and…

So, on Wednesday, after looking at Wirecutter about the best bedside lamps and not wanting to pay $150 for a handsome one, I came across a highly rated one in Consumer Reports for under $20 I ordered it, I took the poetry book back to the library when I was already downtown for a meeting and canceled the hold on the gardening book I had been waiting for. I did get a blister but not too bad.

And I ordered the e-book version of the beautiful book I so desired.

Now I have the light I can read the actual books I have, including a couple of children’s books, one by Daniel Pinkwater, everyone in my dialogue coffee group has read, and I can continue to attempt to find solutions to my shoe problem.

I read a paragraph from the introduction to the Verse book to my class yesterday and a poem I had found elsewhere, and we had a lively engaged conversation about the idea of people being filled with light. This leaned a bit towards the spiritual and woo woo but the conversation was full of wonder and laughter and that in and of itself brings a sense of lightness into a dark wet day.

Much to ponder here. I will do so as I go off shortly to check on my eggplant above to see how in fared in the rain.