Hello, and happy Sunday.
It has been a lovely day for the LewiBald household. LewiBald is a hybrid name between my last name and my husband Chris’. This was not the first marriage for either of us and there didn’t seem to be a reason for me to take his last name. We are in our “sunset” years, – our respective children are all grown to adulthood, figuring out their own lives independent from their parents’ – my husband was happy to support what I wanted to do, and I really didn’t want to go through the hassle of changing my name again. The last name change I went through was after my unhappy divorce – I assume most divorces are unhappy – and I was relieved I didn’t need to go through it again. However, we have found there is a need to refer to jointly held items with a singular name. We felt LewiBald was appropriate and rather cute. The name is cute, we are a cute couple, - in our eyes anyway - and that’s what really matters.
We started the day with a relaxing cup of coffee while reading in bed, followed with a healthy breakfast of oatmeal – a staple for us. We worked in our small back yard, replacing a couple of struggling shrubs with blueberry plants. My hope is they will provide some lovely snacking berries in future years. Then we traveled to a community garden at my work site to start spring planting. This is our second year participating in the garden. Last year we had a very good return on kale and peas but many of our plants didn’t do as well. We have a raised bed; I believe too much of the nutrients in the soil are washed away by heavy rain, leaving some plants to wither. It’s all good fun for us but I hope we have a few more tomatoes this year. We planted tomatoes, peas, spinach, a hot pepper plants, and several marigolds to help the tomatoes thrive. Last year’s kale plants that survived through the winter had bolted recently to show off lovely yellow flowers – picture included. Surprisingly, the kale is still good to eat - rather sweet, I think - so we left it to do its thing and hopefully provide for local pollinators. We were thrilled to see a bumble bee hiding amongst the petals. After the garden chores, we came home and went separate ways. I went shopping. Chris attended a sports event with some of his family and beat me home by several hours. We cooked and ate a lovely dinner, then watched two episodes of an old show we started watching recently – Battlestar Galactica. It was certainly a lovely Sunday, and I enjoyed the light and easy schedule.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t completely free from the usual fear, worry, and anxiety that seem to haunt me regularly now, but I feel it was in check for the most part. I think most are aware there is a lot to worry about these days, for me the signs and symptoms of a world in peril are painfully obvious at every corner and I can’t help but feel overwhelmed at the personal responsibility we each have to do something to make things better. I’m not going to take up your time with a long list of all I see wrong in the world, but I’ll venture to guess that if your paying attention, you have your own list. On most days, I acknowledge the conditions in the world, do what I can in my tiny sphere of influence, and let the rest go. On other days, when it’s just too much to think about, I distract myself with work, TV, and what-have-you. There are also the days I force myself to sit with the overwhelming feeling of the weight of all the world’s burdens despite my powerlessness to do much about it, and that’s ok too. What’s important to remember is the feelings of dread will pass, and living my best life now is enough for today. This world is going to end one day, and people will continue to suffer until that time. Any one of us can make a difference by trying to be a good human and doing the next right thing, but I can’t save the world or end suffering – no one can.