As I sit hear in my home office, windows open, I hear the ice cream truck approaching for the third time today. The gimmicky version of “Do Your Ears Hang Low” gets louder and louder, until it’s just below my window and I hear a girl yelling the prices of bomb pops to a friend, who has dashed inside to get cash from her mom.
If you had asked me while I was working in an office, far away from residential neighborhoods (and kids with cash, home from school) if the ice cream man still existed, I would have hesitated.
For the daytime, summer, sounds of my neighborhood, to which I am now privvy, I am grateful.
Yesterday would have been the day I return to Sun Prairie for work for this school year. Instead, I slept in, rode my bike to the post office and public library, worked in the garden, and made three jars of pesto.
There are days when I feel heavy with regret that I didn’t ride out the traveling gig I had after college for just a few more years. I read a particularly good travel story or watch a particularly inspiring travel video and I fill with fear that I’ll never be able to do that again; at least not as carefree as I once did.
What time has erased is that at moments during those trips, I was wrecked with confusion about what was next, continually asking myself what I was going to do with my life. Other times, I was lonely, exhausted, and in many more cases that I’d like to remember, dealing with some sort of gastrointenstinal enemy invader.
All of those burdens have been lifted in my memory. The only thing that remains is the feeling that every day I woke up in a exotic place full of things to learn, knowing that it would be an adventure. I didn’t know where I’d go, who I’d meet, or what I’d see. All I knew is that it was going to be sweet.
Traveling is possibility. That is what I long for.
Yet, today, in a conversation with someone I am deeply grateful to know, I found myself talking about my latest gig, my writing business. I no longer ask myself what I am going to do with my life; I am doing it. I wake up feeling excited about the day ahead and, each and every day, I am delightfully surprised by what is brought to me. I meet someone new. I learn. I create. A new part of the world reveals itself to me. Here - less than 100 miles from where I grew up - I wake up feeling much like I did in so many foreign cities around the globe.
My life is possibility. That is what I am grateful for today.
If you haven’t watched the Dancing Guy’s video yet, you are in for a treat.
I missed it the first time, and then even though I work at home with no coworkers - its all I heard about all day long! So, after a lot searching, I finally found a replay of Jason’s Lezak’s incredible comeback.
My favorite part - when the newbie, Garrett Weber-Gale, gets the mic in the post-race interview first and says “United States of America” kinda timidly. My second favorite part - the announcers who just “don’t think he can do it.” Let the haters hate…and then prove them wrong. Of course, the same announcer later says he “saw it at 75.”
I am grateful for NBC’s replay rights of the Olympics (as exclusive as they seem to be) and the hot bodies of swimmers.
I recently decided to treat myself to a subscription of The Sun Magazine and my first copy arrived this week. What fun reading. The last page, Sunbeams, is quotes on a particular topic. This month’s was work, which I really enjoyed. You can read it online, if you are so inclined. A favorite of mine:
They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.
