Savouring the Day

A sunny Tuesday morning. I’m surprised to find that it is -2℃ at 8 o’clock. I’ve had a good sleep. It’s remarkable how good that plus the sun can make me feel. I shall not let that goodness and the day go to waste. I will not haste though, but savour all the minutes at my own pace. I remember the saying, haste makes for waste. So how shall I proceed?

The day is almost over. I surely did not haste today. I enjoyed a leisurely 4 hour brunch with my two dear friends. One of them had just recently lost her mother. I shared my thought that I really had believed that we would never lose our mothers. We had them for so long. It’s really strange now to find ourselves without our mothers. But that is the way with nature. We are losing more people as time goes by. It is this stage in our lives.

After time spent with my two friends, it was time to take my father out to the mall for a walk and coffee with my mother’s friends. I don’t have any Chinese friends except these. I don’t have a lot of friends either. I am not a social butterfly. I cannot handle too many people but I am fortunate to have my little groups of caring loving individuals, at the mall, at the YWCA and my retired co-workers. It is enough.

After coffee at the mall, I still had a little time to do a bit of weeding, planting and watering in the greenhouse. My spinach and lettuce are ready for small pickings. I planted 2 sweet one million tomatoes. There’s 2 blossoms on the snow peas. Our days are still a frosty but it was toasty warm in the greenhouse in the afternoon. Now it is late and time for bed. It was a very good day.

MOTHERS, GIRLFRIENDS, THERAPISTS

Cruise DinnerThere’s reasons why I don’t make New Year’s resolutions any more.  I’ve felt the allure of new beginnings and a new year. It’s easy to be pumped with the spirits of the Christmas and end of year celebrations.  I feel I could conquer the world but experience has taught me a thing or two.

It’s easy to make resolutions, those promises to do better in the glow of the holiday season. But come the cold dark days of January, your resolve melts, exhaustion and sometimes depression take over.  You have to rally all your resources just to get out of bed on some days. What I don’t need is the pressure of those New Year’s Resolutions looming over me.

IMG_4400What I do is I still get up, dress up and show up for my life.  I try to do the best I can.  On cloudy days when I am filled with anxiety, I do slow laps in the warm water of the pool.  I concentrate on my breathing, blowing bubbles out my nose and mouth as slow as I can.  I keep my body in alignment.  I don’t try for 2 more laps when my legs are heavy like lead and I am sinking.  It’s okay to sit in the whirlpool and let the jets smash away my tight spots.

Brenda's Birthday 003On days like these, it’s helpful to have a therapist smash your tight spots that the whirlpool jets can’t get at.  Good friends are equally if not more beneficial.  They can reach those tight spots unreachable by jets or therapists.  There’s nothing like girlfriends except maybe your mother’s chicken soup to make you feel valued and loved.  Treasure your mother and girlfriends.  They will always be there for you if they can and even when they can’t.