A Day Off

Everyone needs a day off. Even us retired folks. So after just smidge of laundry, and a couple of hours of whatever else I did, I set off for Government House for tea with friends - and a ballroom full of other ladies, and one man. Before the tearoom doors opened we took a stroll through a display and sale of donated jewelry and china held monthly by the Government House Historical Society. At precisely 1pm we were ushered into the ballroom cum dining room. A pianist greeted us with Climb Every Mountain and accompanied us through our lunch of dainty sandwiches, tea and cakes. We talked. We laughed. 

My first visit to Government House in Regina on manicured, lovely grounds, and on such a beautiful day, was a real treat. 

“When I have a day off, 

I will have a day off.”

~ Andrew Flintoff

To Work My Dreams

Dreams are the ultimate trap  

when I don’t know how

when I’m afraid to ask for help

but they are so beautiful

I could look at them all day

until the sun threatens to set

~ a bridge from sky to ground

the only chance to free them

from the trap of my own making

landing gently on the ground

dreams are the ultimate purpose

to shape my life as a potter shapes

wet clay getting wet, dirty and tired

until the joyous work of the dream

frees my fears and is as beautiful as the sky.

“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. 

Go forward and make your dreams come true.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Something Small

Something Small

“Unless I’ve learned something new everyday, I don’t count it as a good day. Might be something so small that no one else notices it.” Grandfather and grandson were in the garden clearing it up for winter. 

~~~~~

“My grandfather was about to give me more of his wisdom of his ninety years. I really never minded it. When I was a teenager, I sometimes got annoyed with hearing the same old stories, but as I got older, I just loved hearing them.”

 “Kind of like when I watch TV reruns and know what the character’s going to say?” Richard and his grandson, Joey, were working on the garden he planted every year. “That’s right, son.” He raked over where they had pulled out all the spent potato plants. “Your grandmother’s going to be happy with all the potatoes we've found.”

“Grandfather! I found another one. It’s really tiny but is that what your grandfather meant?” He held up a tiny purple potato no bigger than the end of the old man's thumb. “Sure is. And if he found one like that, he’d get down on his knees and dig into the dirt to see if there were more. Sometime there wasn’t anything, but sometimes he find one or two more.” Then he’d say  “Alway pay attention to the little guy, Richard. He’s got friends that are just waiting to be noticed, to be looked after.”

“What happened to the potatoes he’d find?” Richard was ready to throw the little potato away. “Why, he’d gather up what he had, take them in the house and your great-grandmother would make a potato salad. And if there were a lot of little ones, she’d cook them up for supper.” 

~~~~~

Quiet settled on the back yard. Only the late summer sun, a junco chirped, and a breeze rustled the drying leaves. The two gardeners picked up their rakes and hoe and put them away in the shed. A spider web was draped across one corner of the fence by the shed. Richard stopped and watched the spider at rest in the middle of the web. In the past he would have ripped it off, paying no attention to the spider. He felt different. “Grandfather, what do you know about spiders?”

“I think it’s important to find the little things 

in everyday life that make you happy.”

~ Paula Cole