I Stand Accused in Everyday Ramblings

Now that the weather has turned, I need to get out more and take some photos.

The marigold starts I planted last week are not doing too well. I am flummoxed.

This morning I took the last of the four Mindful Strength classes for gardeners. They are recorded and I will be returning to them. The one last week with all the lunges and silly walks was the one I will return to the most because clearly those are the areas where I need work.

The dental stitches come out tomorrow. While I am not looking forward to having them out, I am looking forward to them being out. I will get a few months’ reprieve before next steps. Carefully being able to eat things with edges again is out there in my future.

My county moved into the high-risk category for contracting covid yesterday. That means, practically that I won’t be moving on teaching in person at least until the fall, which will be here sooner than one thinks in the northern hemisphere.

The next series of live classes I am going to take starts in September and is called “Bone Builders”. There will be hopping I bet. With a gradual warm up, maybe jump roping. Gosh, I loved that as a kid.

In the meantime, I can work on my cartwheels. Or cart-hops as they are manifest with this body at this time. Summer is a good time for that.

There is a lot of stuff happening that is touching my life but none of it is my story to tell. A lot of sadness, difficulty, suffering, transition, unexplainable (at least for now) behavioral changes.

I am trying to stay grounded with an open heart. And do the things I do, teaching, gardening, writing, reading, and thinking.

There sure is a lot to think about these days.

This morning I was taking a photograph of a just blooming white hydrangea and all of a sudden, I hear this woman voice saying, “We would really prefer it if you didn’t do that” in a sharp tone. I had my garden basket over my arm because I was coming back from the garden. I also didn’t have my “ears” in because I don’t usually wear them when I am walking as the ambient world in the city is painfully loud these days, so I barely heard her.

I looked up, a woman and an older man in this expensive designer condo were watching me from a balcony. I said back, “Oh, so you don’t want me taking pictures of your beautiful flowers? That’s what I do, I take pictures of flowers.”

Not a brilliant retort but I wanted to honor their wishes for privacy if that is what this was, but the woman was chagrined and said that she thought I was cutting their flowers and stealing them. Noko, Flower thief. I said robustly that I would never do that. And she said, you never know…lately…

People do steal flowers out of gardens, off porches here on occasion and I told them I understood that it happens. Then I complimented them on a new bed they had planted out front recently, and all was forgiven. It became a friendly exchange.

The encounter made me sad though. But then I already was a bit sad. My tolerance for meanness, cruelty and incivility is about zero right now.

I intend to try to spend the rest of my day being kind.