The Magic Word and an Extravagance of Finches in Everyday Ramblings

We are coming out of a handful of very wet days. We need the rain and I am not complaining but the dark and blowing splat in the face rain has felt, well, effortful.

I have what I call my “rain protocol”, which involves waterproof, jacket, pants and boots. I still haven’t found a hat that doesn’t give me “hat hair”. So it is not like I haven’t been out in it but when I get home in the evening oh man I am happy to unburden myself of all this and put on loose toasty sweats.

And eat cookies. Which I need to stop doing. I walked all the way across town last weekend to get a box of Dark Chocolate Stars (a holiday cookie that Trader Joe’s features).

I am blaming part of this on the 30-Day Yoga Challenge I am doing. So not only am I doing all the stuff I usually do, walking and teaching but I am also doing a full yoga practice every day. I am getting stronger and doing poses I haven’t done in a long time and adapting a few I just plain can’t do. This exposes me to a different teacher pretty much every day and that is great for my teaching. I am incorporating new insights into my classes.

There is this great sense of relief when I get through the class and I did mine already today. Of course today they sent an AM and a PM class. Sigh.

On Monday when I was going over to teach the morning class I got on a crowded bus full of Portland State students going to class and as I am standing there in my rain protocol holding on to a strap (they are making buses for taller bodies now) I hear the young man behind me call out “Senior!” and my heart sank when I realized he meant me.

The young man in front of me got up.

My hair isn’t even gray yet!

I have had folks offer seats before when I have had groceries but not like this. And it is a good sign of a healthy civil society but still… I was going to teach a yoga class to what turned out to be one student, a man about 20 years younger than me.

So what is the magic word?

Around here the magic word is… okay!

That means it is time to feed the cats. I need to be very judicious in my use of it because saying it is a call to action. Leaps are performed if it is uttered.

And my patio is a madhouse of at least three different types of finches.

…and sparrows and juncos and spotted towhees and the huge scrub jays coming in to compete with the squirrels for the peanuts.

It is so hard to keep it clean out there with the leaves and the rain and oh well, the cats enjoy watching the activity and the finches remind me of Andrew.

The finches are going through a whole small tube feeder full of sunflower hearts and seeds in a day. It is really pretty amazing.

I am so grateful to have the resources to be able to provide that to them. And it reminds me I need to put some more suet out there and it looks like we are headed for a big freeze and maybe even snow next week.

I am getting my hair cut and highlights later this week. I think I am going to go very bright, maybe even white. :)