Day Ten (last day!) Wild Musings with Renee Magnusson What was beautiful today? Today started by me getting out of bed in the morning and will end with me going to bed tonight. This feels so decadent, indulgent and wonderfully ordinary. I work a 10 hour midnight shift 3 times a week usually so to wake up in the morning after a night of sleep and to go to bed when it’s dark pleases me no end. And isn’t something I take for granted. I also love the feeling of working midnights where time is expansive and fluid. Working midnights reminds me that there are 24 hours to every day and each one holds its own uniqueness. And there is a certainly a deliciousness to crawling into bed at a time when many people are facing their work day. But ultimately, it’s the normalcy of days like today that soothe me (even if it’s 2 a.m. when I actually climb into bed, it’s still night). Night sounds of crickets and distant trains rumbling comfort me and remind me that tonight someone else, not me, will be on watch. Because we’re 13 hours apart, my friend Fran in Tasmania and I will sometimes exchange messages as the other is heading to bed: “Sweet dreams. I’ll hold the fort for you. All is well.” I loved my haiku today (I had actually written it last night in response to an incident yesterday) and I felt it matched my photo well, taking a more literal meaning if paired with the photo. I liked the duality. I love it when my haiku can stand separate from my photo but also matches the photo. When I did my usual 3 card Tarot card spread (with the deck I feel is my forever deck, Tarot of Mystical Moments created by Catrin Welz-Stein—I just love everything about this deck, from the intriguing illustrations which speak to me beyond words to their silver gilt edges) I got strong positive cards—the first 2 at least! The 9 of cups, the wish card, to my way of thinking and the Queen of Pentacles and the 7 of cups. A good reading always starts the day off right! I made my favourite breakfast of French toast with cinnamon with fresh peaches and blackberries instead of frozen this morning. A delicious treat. And I packed a lunch of 3 jalapeno cheese sticks (hoping that I liked them!) and a banana for lunch in a park with my dear friend, Jo-Anne. I had a somewhat disturbing insight in an exchange with a Moonshine friend this morning but even what seems like a negative realisation can be beautiful if it leads to illumination so I include it here. My friend had posted lots of her art on facebook and I commented on it saying how lovely to see her art and her journey and she responded saying it was the first time she had posted her work on facebook, usually it was instagram where, for whatever reason, she felt ‘safer’. I replied that I felt the same, more exposed on facebook, and I pondered why. After all, facebook was full of ‘friends’, people I’d actively chosen to see my page whereas instagram was full of strangers who followed me (along with some friends). I put my dishes in the sink and thought some more. Then I realised what it was. When I post on instagram, 30 people could view my post and not comment or ‘like’ and I’d be fine with it but if 30 of my facebook friends saw my post and didn’t comment or ‘like’, it would feel more like rejection. Ouch. I realise this can spiral and some days this wouldn’t bother me, other days it would. But it explained why I only post my daily haiku on instagram everyday and only my favourites on facebook. I don’t like the feeling of being so influenced by other people’s responses but the insight was invaluable and I had dug deeper so basically I’ll take it as a win. If I understand then I can work to change or at least acknowledge when a day may or may not be a good one to post on facebook. Driving to meet Jo-Anne on a beautiful sunny but cooler day, I noticed a hedge of flowering sunflowers, all nodding their heads inward as if sharing secrets. One fence had gladiolus tips peeking over the top like nosy neighbours. And we discovered wild sunflowers at the bottom of a flight of wooden steps. We ate at a picnic table in a park grandstand but moved when a black spider fell into my friend’s lunch! Then we sat and chatted and laughed and commiserated on a bench in the shade facing an ornate but dry fountain. We watched a fuzzy yellow caterpillar safely inch its way through the grass to a flower bed. When we reached my friend’s house, she made earl grey tea for me in a grey china tea cup with a solid yellow inside and a swirling gold pattern around the edge. We carried it outside to her deck and sat under the red umbrella with the lake breeze blowing through our hair. The puffy cushion she gave me for behind my back fitted perfectly and was comfortable. Somehow we got chatting about songs and Jo-Anne shared her favourite songs that she thought I may not be as familiar with. Songs and music create and touch on memories like nothing else in my world. I often feel that a way to gain an insight into someone is to look at their favourite songs and movies. Jo-Anne’s list surprised me in how many of her choices were real heartbreaking, sad sad songs, often bluesy, that burrowed through to my bone. But what a pleasure to share that and she’d play the songs on Spotify on her phone and if I particularly liked any I’d write them down to fit into one of my many many playlists (all mood oriented). As I’ve written this, I have listened to Solomon Burke sing 'Cry to me’ repeatedly. The timbre of his voice makes me shimmy in my seat, the way he sings certain words just speaks to my soul, to a primal part of me that doesn’t emerge very often. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of listening to it! That song will forever remind me of today, sitting at Jo-Anne’s glass table under the red umbrella drinking earl grey tea sharing music with the lake breeze blowing our hair across our faces. A delightful late summer’s day with a treasured friend. Day 243 #365daysofsybwriting #365daysofhaiku Rain and wind battered scorched by heat, mired in mud re-hang the sunshine
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AuthorWelcome! I'm Sue Blott: a writer of all things, a poet at heart, mom, wife, daughter, step-mom, grandma, tea drinker, tai chi-er, mystic, artist, dreamer...and now a blogger! This is my world. Categories |