dual personalities

Another busy week has flown by, but there’s good news. The travelers have arrived safely in Idaho, tired but happy. To think that barely a week ago we said our tearful goodbyes (and yes, there was a little snow on the ground)!

So much can happen in a week. Son #1 shaved off his beard and with it at least five years and all his street cred (yay!).

Meanwhile, son #3’s car got the death sentence (transmission failure) and he had to rush his wonderful cat Eve to the all-night animal clinic in Indianapolis after she ate some lead solder. I guess she had a kitty stomach pump. It all worked out and she is fine.

It’s alarming how fast things can change. We always seem to be rushing around, too busy to notice our surroundings or appreciate the wonderful people in our lives. Tomorrow is my DH’s birthday, but I’m afraid the celebration will be somewhat curtailed this year — or maybe just different. There’s a gratitude potluck lunch after church tomorrow and then a Guy Fawkes bonfire party at a colleague’s farm tomorrow night. I wonder whom we will burn in effigy?

The one present (aside from a family gathering) that I know my DH would like I can’t give him; that is free time — time to read, time to sit and think, time to do nothing at all. I guess we’d all like more of that. Edgar Allan Poe got it right when he wrote,

I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active – not more happy – nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.

Hear, hear! Let’s all get off the gerbil wheel and pursue happiness and wisdom slowly and quietly. That might have an appreciable effect upon humanity, mightn’t it? I, for one, want to let the wrinkles come with mirth and laughter and some peace and quiet, too.

As we head into November, do try to slow down and appreciate the little things in life — they’re what make it all worthwhile.

*Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice