A Happy Lab Rat in Everyday Ramblings

I took this with my phone this morning on my way to the charity 5K event. It was held at a park in an urban residential neighborhood full of lovely old homes and wonderful gardens.

And memories.

I used to go to this park and hang out for about 45 minutes each Saturday morning between formal Zen meditation practice and my yoga class. This was in the heart, dead center, in the span of time I had Mr. Finch in my life. Oh the drama! Some of you remember. We were going to be poets to be reckoned with the two of us, and recognized for it.

Our ambition was boundless as well as our longing and this morning over there in the little school garden waiting for the walk/run to start I was taken with how all that longing is gone and what part of it that has been replaced has been replaced with a sense of both a life fully lived and loss. We sure gave it our best shot at the time.

I do still harbor ambitions for both my poems and my very unfinished memoir about that time but they are modest. Mostly these days I am thinking more about staying healthy and engaged in the world.

When I arrived at the event the registration was all sort of confusing. I didn’t even think I’d get a t-shirt because I registered late. But I got a participant one and it wasn’t until they announced that there were fifty melanoma survivors in the crowd that I realized there was a special shirt for us. At the starting line I struck up a conversation with a woman just a bit younger than me wearing a survivor shirt.

We stayed close, including her husband, and walked and ran together the whole time and talked. It was useful and good. Her doctor saved her life by insisting persistently, even though she conveniently forgot after her physical, that she get the mole on her leg biopsied just two years ago. At the finish line the couple insisted I ask for a pretty purple survivor’s shirt afterwards and I did. These are high quality t-shirts and that is very cool. I will wear them in the real world.

I met the research doctor doing the registry. She is wonderful! Full of absolute steely determination to make a difference in the lives of folks diagnosed with malignant melanoma. And she is funny. We raised over $15,000 and it will all stay in Oregon for the tissue bank.

On the way home I stopped at Athleta and employed my 30% yoga teacher discount for the first time to buy a full little yoga outfit. When I was paying for the items, (not in my budget, eek) the very knowledgeable sales woman said “I think these tights might be too big for you”

!!! Be still my heart.

She was serious and we had a long talk about contemporary fit and the older body. They do fit. I could have gotten into the small and I am sure they would look tres chic, but I would not be comfortable teaching in them. Nice nice yoga tights though.

We are having a gorgeous late spring weekend. Mild and sunny. I was happy to be out and about for hours and hours engaged with the world and community.

And now I think I am going to binge watch Justified Season 4 to get ready and make space for the newly released next to the last Season of True Blood, which ships Tuesday.