On Balance
When irritating little events occur it helps that they balance out with affirmative little events. That way we achieve the kind of balance that allows us to shrug off the irritations and focus instead on the little successes. Right? Mind, there are many among us who focus on the half-empty goblet and their levels of irritation build to the point of belief that life, somehow, has it in for them. Theirs is the three-strikes-out theory, that bad things happen in multiples of three. If, somehow, two nasty things happen throughout the space of a day, they await, with bated breath, for the third, then gloomily take ownership of any additional mishap as the third in the series. And sit back, awaiting a repeat the following day. Life cannot be a happy event overall for these unfortunates.
On the other hand, is it possible, and why not? that one's state of mind directly influences the quality of one's life, one's ability to absorb adversity? I'm certainly a firm believe in it. Just as our daughter, for example, believes that nothing comes easy in this world; that events occur beyond one's reckoning; that if one miserable event occurs just wait, the rest will follow. A well balanced personality, needless to say, obviates this form of belief. Some people are born with sunny personalities, some are born defeatist.
Here's the day's balance sheet of admittedly small irritations, nicely set off by little pick-me-ups.
- I finally got around to emailing our summer-cottage-rental hosts enquiring about the possible whereabouts of my dear departed backpack. ** Our kindly hosts emailed back affirming that it was left behind, was in their possession and they held the firm intention of keeping it for us upon our return, be it for a short fall vacation, or next year's week away in the Waterville Valley.
- Irving racked off the wine he's been brewing the last month or so for the final time, and bottled it. In the bottle-washing process beforehand he discovered the tiny corpse of a mouse in one of the bottles. Good grief, how is that possible? He cannot recall where he procured that particular set of bottles. ** On the plus side, the wine turned out really well, and he's inordinately pleased with his efforts.
- After all had been done for the afternoon, I set about watering the many garden urns and pots and garden beds, and while doing so, immersed myself in the pure pleasure of admiring the floral displays. ** And then I discovered the neat, paper-brown conical nest of wasps, necessitating that I bring into action the garden guardian.
- Peering out the glass panel of the front door early this morning I saw upon the floor of the porch what looked suspiciously like cat scat. And cat scat it was. The masculine half of the team cleaned it up, soaped and scrubbed down the porch. ** Good thing we'd just earlier enjoyed the perfect atmosphere for our morning ravine walk, noting the meadow rue beginning to flower, the candles on the stag-horn sumacs already prominent, and were serenaded by the raw caw of a crow.
- Decided to prepare a vanilla custard for dinner dessert, and we'd have it with fresh raspberries and fresh-baked sugar cookies which I'd mixed up a batch of dough for earlier, after breakfast. Nice combination to finish off Friday-night dinner. Oops, why does this always seem to happen to me? The custard didn't set beyond wobbly. Hot damn! Toss it? ** No, freeze it, and that worked a miracle of sherbet-like custard.
- The combination ceiling fan/light fixture we set out to buy for our daughter's kitchen ceiling to replace the one our granddaughter did in on the week-end turned out to be somewhat less the fabulous on-sale purchase than the advertisement led us to expect. The halogen bulbs burn too hot, too energy-intensive, too expensive to replace. ** A diligent search brings to light another one on sale, pricier, but with better features.
- Just before dinnertime, a neighbour two houses down the street has one of those trucks back up to his house to clean out his ducts and the earth-shattering sucking noise coming through the dining room windows facing the front of the house is enough to take away anyone's appetite. ** We close the windows, diminish the sound, and look out on to the splendour of our garden, wedding two sensuous pleasures.
- Ah, this one is more than a little difficult: our grandchild, whose birthday celebration will be tomorrow has been awaiting word from her erstwhile best friend with whom she has, for the past three months, been exchanging letters and telephone conversations cementing their best-friend status, since their separation as a result of a house move. On this occasion, the girlfriend has not returned calls asking if she would like to attend the birthday party, to which the grandparents (us) would be more than happy to ferry and chaperone her to. ** We will do our best, the rest of us, to make this child happy, to forget, if momentarily, the absence of her best friend who has chosen, for whatever reason, not to respond.
posted by Pieface @ Friday, June 23, 2006
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