Month: January 2013

friendship, inspiration, life lessons, love, mindfulness, music

Never Forget The Little Things

mimijk

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I realize you may be thinking, “Of course, she would say this – she is a little thing”.  True enough, though height isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (bada boom).

I had my quarterly blood-letting this morning and got downtown early enough to stop at Starbucks.  I already took that as a good sign, for there was no traffic, my favorite guy at the parking garage came out to take my keys and we had the chance to catch up for a moment (his wife just had their second child) and the air – the air this morning was so fresh it was begging to be noticed.

When I got into Starbucks,  the woman behind the counter called out to me “Good morning sweetheart, what would make you smile today?”  Some people may not respond well to terms of affection from total strangers – I’m not one of them.  There was something in the way she said “sweetheart” that just tickled my core.  I asked for my venti, non-fat cappuccino, and told her that she had just made my day.  This prompted a conversation between her, the barista and I about the counters in the store (too high for me to reach my coffee, which gave us all a good laugh), how much better it was to greet the day instead of kvetching about its arrival (no one used the word ‘kvetching’, I’m paraphrasing here) and how one small exchange can manifest itself in a thousand ways.  This woman absolutely glowed kindness; she couldn’t hide it if she tried.  I told her and with a clap and a quick step from behind the register, we gave each other the most delicious hug we possibly could.

As I walked out, I held the door for a man trying to finagle himself inside while pulling his briefcase with one hand, texting on his Blackberry and holding The Washington Post with the other.  I wished him a “Good Morning” and clearly startled him (whether by the gesture or the words I don’t know), for I caught his paper as it began to fall to the ground.

In the doctor’s office, the receptionist told me all about her vacation, I listened to the phlebotomist tenderly complain about her new puppy who was still trying to figure out why no one wanted to play with him in the middle of the night.  You get the drift – it’s been a morning of the most sacred little things.  The moments that separate an okay day from a lovely one, the delight in extending one’s self just a tiny bit and receiving so much in return.  This isn’t even about paying it forward – it’s just about choosing warmth over isolation, a smile over an unfocused gaze, the underestimated value of spending one extra moment looking at the world around you and trying to shape it into someplace you want to live.

And as I sit here, the sun casting both warmth on my back and shadows on my keyboard, listening to Enesco’s ‘Roumanian Rhapsody No. 1’, I can’t help but feel that it is the little things that remain the most essential.  The generosity of a stranger, the pictures proudly shown by a new papa, the throw-your-head-back kind of laughter that erupts when you share joy.  Oh yeah, the coffee was extra delicious too.  In fact, that’s the way the whole day is turning out to be.  I wish that for you as well.  Happy Tuesday.

humor, life lessons, mindfulness

A Bird In The Hand – for $19.99

mimijk

“Right now I’m having amnesia and deja vu at the same time.  I think I’ve forgotten this before.” — Steven Wright

My challenges with sleeping are the stuff of family legend.  I fall into the arms of Morpheus every night, so exhausted that I don’t even remember that this is exactly the state in which I found myself the night before.  Ah well, there’s a lot one can learn at night – or not.  When I turned the tv on Saturday morning, I realized that absolutely nothing has changed since 1964.  It was kind of like ‘Groundhog Night’.

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You can still buy Ronco knives for $19.99.  And though K-tel is no longer offering records that are requisite for any connoisseur’s collection, Time Life can send you a complete set of Motown cd’s for one low price.  They’ll even send you ‘The History of Time Life Books’ for free!!  But there’s more (the night is long my friends).  Want to make the perfect omelette?  They’ve got one – and as hard as it may be to believe, you will never serve a wilted, torn omelette again.  It’s also ideal for crepes and grilled cheese sandwiches, though not at the same time.  Apparently, there’s no need for scrubbing when you’re done either,  just rinse (cleanliness is a concept open to personal interpretation).  How I have lived without this gadget, I’ll never know.

I saw infomercials for hair removal systems, hair growth systems, wrinkle reducers, lip enhancers, shapewear that eliminates bulges, shapewear that provides bulges (if you want or need certain areas, um, pumped up shall we say), ten minute work-out programs which absorbed twenty-five minutes of air time,  mini veggie choppers, a multi-use colander which can also serve as a deep fryer or convenient cooked pasta remover (you’ll never have to haul the heavy pot to the sink again).  Personally, I think it also could be used with home highlighting kits – put it on your head and pull the hair through the holes.  Learn yoga, another language and how to be a better lover (perhaps with the organization system on sale, you can do all of these things at once).  Lose the weight that has settled around your mid-section, gain the six-pack worthy of  Adonis.

The best part about these products is that if you order immediately, you get a second one free (plus shipping and handling).  I guess that’s fabulous if you have hoarding tendencies, like to layer your shapewear or just have $20.00 that you’re itching to spend.  Given that these come-ons haven’t changed since I was a kid, I wonder what it says about us?  That we’re so easily seduced by consumerism that we’ll buy anything?  That we really do believe that one can click their heels three times and have magical results?  Perhaps we’ve never fully resolved our child-like naivete?

Or maybe, it’s just that programming in the middle of the night has always been – and will continue to be – just awful.  My new approach to early, early, early, mornings?  Pick up “War and Peace” and hit myself in the head.

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anxiety, discretion, friendship, humor, life lessons, love, mindfulness

Testing The Waters

mimijk

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The Sirs…my fur-kids.  They look adorable do they not?  Sweet and docile, playful and affectionate.  I love them, spoil them and they reciprocate in dog-kind.  Wherever I go, there they are.  As I write this, Teddy is sharing my chair, fast asleep despite the fact that half of my body is no longer on the seat.  It’s ok – he’s comfortable and I think it’s cute.  Archie is snoring with his head on my left foot.  True, my foot fell asleep about twenty minutes ago, but why disturb him?  In my efforts to live in the moment, this is one of those times when my attention is drawn to the comfort of their presence, the clickety-clack my nails make on the keyboard, the hum of the dishwasher.  It’s all good..

Without defining it as a New Year’s resolution per se, I have decided that I need to be more conscious of being in the moment.  Anticipating the future and re-assessing the past are exercises in mental frustration, and frankly leave no part of me more firm and toned as a result.  ‘Shoulds’ and ‘coulds’ permeate my internal running monologue, punctuated with “what were you thinking?”, “what are you going to say?”, “are you crazy-stupid or just crazy?”.  The absolute, breath-taking awesomeness arrives when I invite myself to shut up and just notice the moment in which I find myself.  And on the rare occasions when I do, I feel really, really good.  So I’m trying – which includes those times when trying just doesn’t work…

I usually bring the dogs into the bedroom when I take a shower.  Archie comes into the bathroom and wedges himself between the toilet and the wall (don’t ask me why for it involves a lot of grunting and contorting on his part) and sleeps, well, like a dog – from the moment the shower spray is turned on through all other activities until the moment when the hair dryer is turned off.  Sir Theodore sleeps on the bed (I usually put cnbc on for him, for it could put the most alert being to sleep after a while).  Such machinations buy me peace, for if Sir Archibald is in repose, he does not see the leaf blowing by the window which elicits excited, contagious barks.  Ted starts barking too (though he doesn’t know why).  Typically they’re not big barkers – but when they see something that has the potential to be transportive, forget it.  We’ve got a cacophony of headache-inducing proportion.

But yesterday was such a quiet day, and I was feeling so out of sorts (have you ever wondered what ‘in sorts’ means?  Sorry, there I go again), I just turned the shower  handle all the way to ‘hot’ and waited for the heat and steam to ease the chills that were alternately visiting my body after the dripping sweat cooled on my skin.  “A perfect moment”, I thought to myself.  “Just take in this delicious sensory experience, the feel of the water on your skin” (hot enough to feel like pin pricks but not so hot to be considered pin pricks of torture), “even if you can’t smell your shampoo, enjoy the luxurious lather on your hair – go ahead and make a mohawk”…I was getting as into the moment as a flu-infected person could.  I even began to sing “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do”.  The acoustics are fantastic.

singing in shower

And then all hell broke loose.

Archie fought his way out from his self-imposed wedge and charged downstairs barking as if he was the welcome committee for the Martians who just happened to pull into the driveway.  Teddy, less intrepid but definitely supportive of his buddy, began jumping all over the bed (after all, it is far safer to bark from a reasonable distance until you determine if whatever-it-is is friend or foe).  To paraphrase a different song – I had let the dogs out.

“Let it go Mimi, be in the moment”, I insisted.  Archie was bordering on the apoplectic – whatever was there, it was big.  In response, I opened my eyes just as a cascade of shampoo fell into my eyes. Teddy came running into the bathroom insisting that without my intervention the world as we know it would cease.  “Breathe deep..if this was Andy he wouldn’t even notice – take your time.”  My heart began to beat more quickly.  I began racing to rinse my hair (an impossible task), scrape the razor across my knees (don’t try this) and complete this soothing experience which had quickly turned into a clip from a Three Stooges movie.  With blood dripping from my leg, eyes abraded from shampoo and a chorus of enthusiastic barks telling me to hurry up, I grabbed my robe and tore downstairs leaving a trail that would make it easy for CSI to figure out what happened when they ultimately found me sprawled at the bottom of the stairs.

UPS delivered a pair of sneakers.  The box was left in the garage.

Of course, the boys settled down as soon as I retrieved the package.  They resumed their original positions and were blissfully dreaming in puppyland before I pulled myself back upstairs.  “Ah Grasshopper”, I thought, “You blew this big time”.

So the universe brought me a lesson along with my new sneakers.  Keep the canine distractions locked in the room with me?  Well, duh.  But more importantly, if you really want to be in the moment you have to work at it.  You have to keep your eyes closed when shampooing your hair (which is another way of saying that a moment is best savored when you don’t disturb it). And you really do have to acknowledge that serendipity, UPS delivery people and happenstance can test your best efforts.  Don’t let it deter you – give the present it’s due and if you get distracted, you might as well laugh and try again.

 

 

 

anxiety, friendship, humor, life lessons, love, mindfulness

In First Gear

mimijk

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Well, it’s good to be back behind the wheel – even if this is the second time I’ve backed out of the driveway since I began this little adventure a year ago.  Let me tell you how clueless I really was when I pulled into the service center – and how clueless I remain now that I’ve left.  Were it not for my son Paul, there would be no new iteration of the Karma Truck, for over the past two days I have managed to mangle two different themes, download another background entirely (which exists somewhere in a zip file that I have not been able to find, unzip or download).  I cannot begin to describe what I did with the darn widget-things, all I know is that at one point, there was no room for text unless I chose to write one word per line.  I have written frantic messages to my technically proficient friends who with their characteristic grace and patience, felt my pain and offered me a couple of paper bags to breathe into (except for David who has been highly amused).

And then I came down with the flu.

And tomorrow, I was going to fly to meet an adored friend of mine in warmer climes.  Not according to the doctor who insists that I am grounded until the 15th.

So far, I’d say that 2013 is starting with a big, fat raspberry.

Far be it for me not to find the humor in this though.  It does seem to be my proclivity to get all the yucky stuff over just as the New Year presents itself – no celebratory gestures here.  I save those for later in the month, when everyone else is still recovering from their revelry.  Perhaps this explains why my exuberance in late January is often viewed derisively.  I have terrific rhythm though I am clearly not in sync.  The upside is that I can provide the enthusiasm when everyone is struggling with the ennui of a season that feels endless, as the dearth of three-day weekends extends to unreasonable lengths.  Never fear – I’ll be perking up around then.

So before I reach for more tea, grab my tissue box and dive head first under the covers, I thought I would show you the new and improved Karma Truck, and assure you that though the body may be spruced up a bit (with massive appreciation to Paul), the interior is exactly the same – it’s still just me.

 

friendship, humor, motivation, Uncategorized

Annually Scheduled Maintenance

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Hi there – just wanted you all to know that I’m going to be taking the karma truck in for an oil change and maintenance over the next couple of days.  With a little luck, we’ll be up and running before you even notice we’ve been on the hydraulic lift (so to speak) – perhaps with a new paint job!!  Given that I have no idea where to find the dipstick, these efforts should prove to be very interesting.  See you in a bit..