A Little Bliss

Today was the kind of day that you wait for if you are in the North in April.  The sky was an amazing blue that neither my iPhone or my photography skills do justice.  I have loved the air, the atmosphere in Maine since my first trip to the Katahdin Region.  I know why painters came here to paint, and now that air pollution is decreasing around the globe I do believe that the light is even clearer, the sky bluer.  Today was a picture postcard day.  I started out the day with a little road trip to Ludlow. 

I had found a croquet set on one of the local buy and sell sites on Facebook.  It was an old set, in very good shape and the price was right.  When any guests were here last summer and fall I thought about croquet, the back yard is just right.  So in hopes of once again having visitors and guests I headed out to get a vintage croquet set that I can set up in the backyard.  I might even have a croquet party.  It could be done with social distancing if necessary.  

Mt. Katahdin was  quite majestic this morning and I enjoyed my trip home especially, going slowly along Route 2, and watching as the views of the mountain and the range changed with each curve and turn along the way. 


 Once home I put away the croquet set and sat down with the pile of mail that I had picked up at the post office.  
 It was quite an eclectic number of parcels,  a package from my audiologist,  a package from UC Irvine (grandson's school in the fall), remedies from my homeopath and a bandana from the feminist menopausal punk group Genital Panic.  Now there is some kind of diversity for you.  Use your imagination!

 I liked that this morning I was able to be present and I was also able to let myself do a little hoping and planning for a time that is not today.    It did feel like a little bit of bliss.  

Holding on to a little bit of bliss and future -ing I called Lindsay from Mt. Chase Lodge . 

I made a reservation to get a delivery of food next Friday, it is their first day of doing "delivery meals" .  I am not going to cook and I am going to have a great meal.  (I am not in a place where restaurant to go options abound)  I even talked with some friends about having a virtual supper together on Friday as we are all going to get a food delivery!  Another little moment of dreaming bliss!

More good news today.  Myah ( my first grandchild) is twenty years old today.  I lived in Montpelier VT when she was born, and the plan was I would arrive when Sasha was in labor.  I have scoped out every possible flight and option to get from Burlington, VT to Minneapolis, MN.   

I got the call very early on the 25th of April, 2000.  I made it to the airport in Burlington, arrived in Minneapolis, stopped at an airport store and bought some gifts for everyone.  I picked up my rental car and drove to the hospital.  When I arrived, both James and Sasha said they wanted me to be with them when this precious baby girl would be born.  Literally within a half hour of my arrival, Myah made her entrance in the world.  I have tears in my eyes as I type.  The gift of watching my daughter, give birth to her daughter, to see James so amazingly and total present and supporting, what a moment.  And now she is twenty years old.  

I love that Myah and I are on the zero's and the half-zero's   I was born in 1950, 1/2 of a milliinium.  Myah was born in 2000 on the millinium.  She is so precious to me.  Here she is with her friend Adam (they shared an apartment in Granada Spain for their "semester abroad", he lives in CO and he had to be with her to celebrate her birthday (they were supposed to be in Greece for her birthday!)  Grieving lost dreams and at the same time committed to making new ones! 

Here is Adam and Myah on one of my favorite spots in Minneapolis, the Stone Arch Bridge that links NE Minneapolis (where I lived) with the downtown (and historically the "good" part of Minneapolis).   I have had several chats, talks, and lots of GIFS with Myah today.  Happy Birthday Myah,  if you are 20 that means I am soon going to be 70!  WOW!

If not bliss, contentment, a warm feeling.  Moments of heart opening wide.  And the sun is still shining brightly in the blue blue sky.

I spent a good part of the afternoon with my friend Kathy on Happy Corner Road.  We went out to "pick" more  pussy willows and dogwood.  

 We spent almost two hours walking, stopping, getting stuck, and I even fell down once.  We found ourselves often just exclaiming, "isn't this beautiful".    It was the longest time that I have spent with another human being since I returned to Maine.  

We had such a great time.  I loved the moments when each of us with our walking poles would stop and just open up our everything to just how beautiful it was.  

I am not an athlete.  I don't get much if any positive anything from pushing my body to reach beyond it's limit.  I was a child with asthma in the 1950's.  

What i have cultivated in the outdoor in the absolute and total practice in being totally present to what is present and all around me in the moment.  I have learned to not only enjoy the "macro" moments, but to be still enough for long enough to get the "micro".   Kathy and I shared those kind of moments today and it was bliss. 

After tromping in the woods, we went for a little walk around their pond.  It was magical watching the not yet gone ice as it floated and moved and shifted.  The sun always wins during this time of year, and the ice was beautiful shimmering on the water.  The water was so very clear. 

 What a good day.  It was a day I needed.  This week has not been easy.  I was able to find big time solace with a friend and in the outdoors.  I only wish that each of us can find a way to tap into that which provides us solace. 

My friend Jackie, whose Mother is an a facility and is 90 years old has the virus.  A friend came to stay with her for the weekend, she didn't want her to be alone.  They are going to eat crab legs.  A little bliss.

Myah has her friend, and a big bonfire tonight for her birthday.   A little bliss.

I hope you can find a moment for yours.  It will pass, but it continues to nourish and fill our souls.

I brought the dog wood and the pussy willows home.  I asked "alexa" to play Lucinda Williams.  I am on my front porch, all glassed in, and the sun is shining in from the west.  This is the time of day that this porch is the most wonderful.  The sun is on my cheek.  It is still high in the sky and it is bright.

The sun always wins at this time of year.  It may not be obvious, but it is true.  

It is Saturday.  The pandemic still roars.  All of it is still raging.  And I have meal that will be delivered next week.  I have a croquet set that I will use this summer.  

The pussy willows and the dog wood have a prominent place in my home.  

A little bit of bliss.  I'll take it.