Essays

A Time for Wine
It is Saturday morning. A time for some reflection before rushing into things that have piled up during the week. You know, those “It can wait until Saturday” things. Those things that interfere with concentrating on the tasks and thoughts at hand. We all have our own Saturday lists. This week mine include… wishing a friend happy birthday, sending a get-well card, having a good phone visit with my sister, checking in at LinkedIn, doing some filing, catching up on Bible studies, plus the usual chores: housework, laundry and grocery shopping, and that all-time least favorite, going through the (mostly junk) mail. It will be a full day. Some of it will be rewarding. It is fun staying connected with friends and family. The greeting cards will include newsy notes about the latest goings-on. Some will be downright boring and not on my list of favorite things. I am tempted to whine about those things I don’t like doing. Then I realize that if I don’t do them, they don’t get done. I really don’t want to start the week feeling cluttered.
I work from home (a very lucky me) so it is especially important that I don’t let the day-to-day interfere with work. The downside is that things tend to build up, like filing and self-notes to do this or that. So, Saturday is a much-needed catch-up day. The self-discipline required to focus on work has a personal downside making it easy to crowd too much into Saturday.
The carrot will be this evening, I am sharing a glass of wine (or two) with a good friend. I will pick up a good merlot and some shrimp and brie and we will settle in for a needed visit. This is a stretch-out, feet-on-the-sofa kind of friend. We value the relationship too much to waste our time complaining about the unimportant. We say, “If it won’t matter in five years, why let it matter today?” So, we talk about life and love and people we cherish. The good times don’t need to be the long-planned super extravagant epic experiences. They might not matter in five years, either. What does matter is sharing a glass of good wine with a forever friend.

88 Keys

Arthur Schnabel... a brilliant pianist was once asked, “What is the secret to your genius at the piano? Is it the way you touch the keys? … “No.” He replied... “It is the pauses in between."

All of us, at one time or another have pauses in our lives. They can be anything from a moment to ponder the next step or perhaps a pause that is a re-direction in our career or personal life. I have been exposed to people with enviable career paths and some who have had trouble staying on any path. There is some certainty in this life, we all have a place in this journey whether we are a loner or live by our social calendar, whether we want to do the project, “all by myself” or we are stimulated by collaboration. There is an important place for each of us.

We can keep pounding those 88 keys or we can allow the pauses to create something new, beautiful and unique.

Something else I am sure about, is that we are meant to be in harmony with our surroundings. We may live in a tiny house in Idaho or a penthouse in Manhattan, in the desert of Arizona or on the beach in Maui. We are meant to embrace where we are for as long as we are there. Some would say, “Bloom where you are planted.” There is wisdom in that. The joy and satisfaction don’t always have to be just on the other side of now.