PHOTO: Mary van Balen Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
from Mary Oliver’s poem Sometimes
(Mary Oliver, 1935 – )
“I didn’t get your book proposal,” my sister messaged and I received on my new iPod Touch.
“Sorry. I pulled up your email address. Just forgot to do anything with it. Where IS my mind?”
Where indeed. This is a “day off” and already I am behind. Sore from a night of trying out a foam mattress at the same sister’s house, I have driven my car to the auto shop where repairs were completed after a fender bender, but an oversight on the door lock needs attention. I have visited two grocery stores (feeling a bit like an old lady in a nightgown as I dressed by pulling a knit sleeveless dress over my head, ran a brush through my hair, and slipped on stretched out black flats that slap the floor when I walk) finding all three ingredients for meatball appetizers (read frozen meatballs, grape jelly, and chili sauce) I am crockpotting for a swim party tonight. Did I mention that this is the first day in weeks that we will have rain?
I returned home, threw ingredients into the crock pot, changed clothes, and drove to my new workplace to discuss scheduling problems that resulted from my changing locations and which I discovered when I checked email. I have washed sheets and clothes for work tomorrow, revisited the mattress comparison website now that last night’s sleep experiment has cast doubt on my first choice, and given up on the house. I haven’t showered yet and already the day is speeding along on its own schedule.
I think of Mary Oliver’s quote (and exquisite poetry that often calls one to attentiveness) and wonder if she has days like this, or if she is always attentive, amazed, and articulate.
I will try to rein in my day. Enjoy the coolness instead of cursing the clouds, and take note of the overflowing sink’s message to me: Slow down, be still, and listen to your heart in the quiet moments I require to become clean again.
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