One October week: Hurricane Milton, Northern Lights, a colonoscopy, Yom Kippur, Louise Erdrich in town, Comet Purple Mountain, and the usual amount of making bowls of oatmeal, praising the cat for killing yet another hair tie, and gassing up the car. Here what amazed me:
Our mugs are clearly reproducing themselves whenever we close the cabinet door.
Yes, mosquitoes and chiggers can attack us in October.
The fake lemony-flavored weird stuff I had to drink for colonoscopy and endoscopy prep is best consumed watered down with a lot of ice.
There are at least six stages to waiting out a hurricane crossing your state, according to my sister Jen, including cracking open the Oreos.
One can mostly joke herself out of fear of being Roto-Rootered from stem to stern if she watches enough funny movies, pretends orange Jell-O is a fine dinner, and tells people, "Oh, this isn't such a big deal."
Texting is a reasonable way to connect with family in Florida when hurricanes are upon them, and as always when all ends well, there but for grace go we.
I can run like the wind in my purple Crocs when need be, like every 10-15 minutes when I had to pause the film Humor Me after drinking the fake lemony-flavored weird stuff.
I still love my gastrologist and generally always feel deep affection for anesthesiologists, especially after they say, "Now, this will help you relax a little."
The warm chocolate chip cookie didn't make sense to me after the procedure (yes, I go to a place where they bake chocolate chip cookies for us), but it could have been all the drugs.
It's best to just glance at headlines in the NYTimes and Washington Post when they trigger reactive thoughts ("the world is falling apart!") or relieved ones ("we're saved!") and remind myself that columnists are making predictions up. It's also good to mostly read the advice columns, especially Miss Manners.
I can successfully pull off four micro naps (5-10 minutes) in a day if needed.
Yorkshire Gold continues to be the crack of all black teas.
When all else fails, there's horses on land and rafts in newly formed rivers to get food and medicine to people in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. Also, something to continually discover anew: people can be so persistent in their goodness and propensity to help, even across great distances and barriers.
Meetings on Zoom -- yes, meetings and Zoom -- can be a soulful, life-giving engagement.
The last of the home-grown tomatoes are the best.
The beautiful young man who won Star Baker on the Great British Baking Show totally deserved it.
There's no need to yell out, "Why is it still so fucking hot!" anymore when that could have been yelled out most weeks since May, and why yes, it can be 95 degrees in October now.
The chicken enchiladas at La Tropicana, which I've been ordering for over 40 years, never disappoint, nor does conversation with an old friend about our beloved dead and the power of community over time, even if we had to cover our ears every time the train went by (we were sitting outside in North Lawrence, aka NoLaw).
It's worth everything to lie on the back deck near 9 p.m., an old sweater under my head, beside Ken, and stare up into the pink exhalations of Northern Lights. Likewise, one of my favorite moments of life will now include talking on the phone with Anne as we paced our yards, ecstatic about how the hot pink was getting hotter, turning green at its southern edge, moving to the east, stretching out to the west.
Somehow it makes perfect sense to go from singing along with songs from the musical "Carousel" while driving to Yom Kippur services, then switch it up to chants of repentance (for us and for all the ways humans can go wrong) while gently hitting our chest with our fist dozens of times.
I never take clear biopsy results for granted, and as always, I'm relieved and thankful.
You can't hug people too much who are fasting, praying, and atoning.
Good wonton soup rules.
The origins of the jingle dress, according to Louise Erdrich (in person!), has to do with the 1918 epidemic, the love of a granddaughter, healing, the power of dance, and how we speak of those times now as well as how we hope to speak of our times in the future.
It is possible to curse out the binoculars, go back inside, then get up off the couch, return to the deck, try again and suddenly see Comet Tsuchinsha (aka Purple Mountain).
Thank you, dear Caryn, for keeping me grounded.
Yes!!! to so many of these, especially #16 . The beautiful young man who won Star Baker on the Great British Baking Show totally deserved it.