Sept. 20: Serendipity

Today was one of the days (actually, the whole weekend felt like this) when I had to struggle to live in the moment, not to fret over all the time I didn't have to do the things I dreamt of doing. . . but the gorgeous weather helped to remind me that "all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well" (Julian of Norwich). With the space that made, I went for a walk with BH and Zeus; BH stopped at the Y to swim, while I took my still-present cold (which precluded my usual Sunday am swim) with me to walk with Zdog instead. And there was the "aha!" moment: we ran into church friends who are readying their house for sale, and whom we hadn't seen for a long time. I taught both their sons, and we (I should say "I", as Z was busying snuffling around their underbrush and ignoring us all) had a great visit--nothing earthshaking, but just catching up, and the kind of visit that makes me feel connected and rooted in a warm and steady community. Glowing, I headed on up the road, and then coming past the woods path, on a place where my route on the road runs parallel and above the woods path, I saw someone with a dog down on the path, and that person was

picking up trash. Not just one or two pieces, but with a trashbag and one of those cool sticks, and he was going at it seriously.

This simple fact dazzled me: someone else was taking care of a piece of the world I love, and one that I can get all het up about the neglect of (ouch. Bad sentence), feeling that I am the only one who "ever does anything," and "why don't people. . ." and "There oughta be a law. . ."--and there was someone, who turned out to be a friend of mine from the Library board, out there doing more than I ever think to.

Okay, okay, I get it. Well, for today I did. Making the time for the walk in the lovely day led to that great visit and then the humbling but reassuring discovery that I'm not the only one on the clean up team around here. There's a lesson there, and it's not too far under the surface. I hope I can remember it for the rest of this year!