Lawn Sprinklers & Simpler Times

Happy Memorial Day!
Mondays are usually my days off but not so for the rest of the world. So I love a holiday like today because then everyone else is taking time off and things are quieter and there is shared R & R.Fewer phone calls with people who forget it's my day off. Since we are facing a pretty busy week ahead, I am making a very conscious choice of taking today off to do relax and play.

On my morning walk to Starbucks for a breakfast latte, I landed upon the Kensington Memorial Day Parade. How sweet! Kids, dogs, families and local people in cars and trucks waving flags. ahhhhh
I enjoyed watching and appreciating the community feel to all this; it was so Americana. I did have moments--albeit brief--of nostalgia and longing for the American Dream of a home, family, dogs, cats, neighborhood and a hybrid in the driveway. Not that some of that is still not within my realm...but you get my drift. I wasn't meant for or cut out for the new millenium Donna Reed lifestyle but I guess some of that is still in my race consciousness DNA. I haven't given up on the house, yard 2.5 kids (that means 2 dogs and one cat in my book) and the hybrid. Maybe by the time I get that, they will be making a hybrid VW Beetle, too!

Walking home, there was a simple lawn sprinkler that twirled gently and evenly on the front lawn. I flashed back to my childhood with houses that used those simple sprinklers and kids would run through them to keep cool. (Well, I didn't because I was an overprotected, only-child and did not go out and do those things specifically reducing my times outside in the sun because I would get soooo sunburned.)
Were those simpler times? Yes. Shades of "The Wonder Years" TV show.

My spiritual reminder lesson today was that before heading out this morning, my intuitive voice told me to take a $20. My linear side argued that I all I needed was my Starbucks card. Yeah, OK. Why do so many of us relinquish to that pragmatic side instead of the creative./intuitive side? Because at the Parade, they were selling 92116 t-shirts and I really wanted one. Cost $15. ARGH. My right brain tried to tell me. What could it have hurt to have put the $20 in my pocket along with the Starbucks card? So I gave the nice lady my name and she held out a shirt for me and I hustled back home. While changing into shorts for the return walk, the phone rang 3 different times and I answered. Sooooo by the time I walked back to the parade everyone and everything was packed up and gone. Damn. Sure, I got another good exercise jaunt but if I had listened and trusted that still small voice, I would also have a cool, long-sleeve 92116 Memorial Day T-shirt in support of my beloved neighborhood.

The sounds of the parade and the lawn mowers are starting to diminish. So I shall look to cranking up the Oldies station and puttering around the house before going to a BBQ. Yeah, me--going to an afternoon BBQ on Memorial Day. Will wonders never cease?

Make love your memory today.