I woke up precisely when the alarm went off. Ready to go. Awake. There are sometimes differences in how you wake up. Sometimes you’re awake, alert to the hum of the universe. Sometimes you can go right back to some deep stage of nocturnal coma without an effort.
Lately I’ve discovered a manner of waking up, fully aware of all of the works of poetry and physics man has devised and deciphered, my brain alert with the knowledge of all of it — at least that it exists, not that I have the capacity to retain it or understand it all, mind you. But, then, I turn over and go right back to sleep. All of that heft and conscious living going on in my brain and then, suddenly, it’s two hours later. Two hours later than you’d intended.
Nothing to it. You just roll over and close your eyes, but not too tightly.
Saw the neighbors. Feed the deer. Talked with a sweet old lady who is about to move. Her house goes on the market tomorrow. She has mixed feelings about it all. The neighborhood will miss her dearly. She’s one of the pillars, one of the stalwarts, a founding member of the officially unofficial neighborhood watch.
She told me today that when she started working they were so hard-pressed for teachers that they were putting people with two years of classroom experience into schools. She had colleagues that taught all day and then went to night school to complete their degree. This was the 1970s, and a decade or so into a population boom. There are a lot of stories in there, you can just tell.
Anyway, there’s not much else here, because I spent most of the day just staring at a screen, willing things to come into existence. Not a lot of luck on that front, unfortunately.
Nothing to that, either. You just sit there and wait, again, with your eyes not too tightly closed.
Here’s a little clump of weedy grass that found its way through the cement, and is enjoying some rain drops.
Mild gray day. Breezy. The sort of day that comes with its own charms, and as such deserves our attention. The sort we all need to be able to take in at the drop of a hat.
And instead of doing that, I spent it getting not enough work done.
Well, that’s why we have tomorrow. There will be something to that, surely.
