Featured, Presence

Instructions for the Proper Care and Feeding of Grumpy Robins

September 25, 2021

Instructions for the Proper Care and Feeding of Grumpy *Robins

(*for most anyone, actually. Put your own name here if you’d like)

If you see me one day, and I seem out of sorts.

Ask me.

Ask me this.

“Have you been outside lately? Without a list, without an agenda? When was the last time you wandered through your yard for the joy of it?

When I start to protest, because I probably will, because of all the things I think I need to do, stop me. Say “Yes, dear heart. Of course there is an endless amount of work you could do inside. Also outside. Take your blackberry patch, for example. Endless! But those berries will be there tomorrow, and you can do another clearing then. But now? Bless them. Leave them. That is not your task for this hour. Right now, you must go out and play in the dirt.”

Hand me my shovel. My garden gloves. Rip open the bags of compost that have been languishing at the side of the house. Send me out to my other compost pile, the one at the back of the yard. Help me turn it over. We can search for worms. Because there are plants to plant, living things that need a new home, the ones that I found on the discount table at the nursery. The $2.00 shrubs. The $.50 perennials. Continue Reading…

Presence

A “Shoes Off” Household

September 18, 2021

Small birds that we saw on our beach walk. My bird identification app said that they might be Snowy Plovers, which are typically uncommon. They scurried around, pulling food from the sand. A delightful, unexpected sighting. We watched their antics for a few lovely minutes.

I got to see my daughter’s new apartment this week; she will be starting her third year of college at UCLA. She flew home for a quick visit, and then I drove her back to Los Angeles a few days later to help her settle in. When she first unlocked the door of her new place and ushered me in, she said, very politely,  “Mom, we are a “shoes off” household.”

“Oh!” I said. “Of course!”

It made me happy, that she was able to tell me their rule. But it also made me a little sad, that she is in a household that doesn’t include me anymore. I also have a “shoes off” household in theory, but sometimes I tiptoe through the house with my shoes on, if I have forgotten something and am just going to grab one thing “real quick.” Like my tea. My water. A mask. Actually, I almost always forget something in the morning, so I wear my shoes in the house a lot. Maybe I do not have a “shoes off” household as much as I’d like to think, and my daughter realizes that. In her household, it seems like they will actually honor their rule. A good thing.

It’s not a terrible drive, the one from our home to Los Angeles. Still, though, there were moments when I found myself wishing the whole Continue Reading…