Monday This and That

It is important from time to time to slow down,

to go away by yourself, and simply be.

Eileen Caddy

Ah, another weekend has passed on by, and I have nothing remarkable to report. Is that what growing older means?  Alas, though, I love these wonderful quiet weekends where I've nothing pending, and I can take my time about things and do as I wish.  Such a blessing they are!  In my youth, Friday and Saturday were always a time to party, a time to have fun.  Gosh, it was dreadful if plans fell through, and I had to stay home. Now my home is my haven, and sometimes I wonder if I would ever leave if I didn't have to work.  After all, shopping can now be done online and delivered. 

Actually, this weekend was spent nursing a nasty little cold.  Those annoying tickles became a full-fledged cold by the time I got home from my test on Friday. I'd planned to go to the fruit stand on Saturday but decided that, since I was dressed, I'd take a walk there on Friday.  It's always fun to see what new they have, and sometimes very disappointing as well.  There are quite a few new fruits that I tried, loved, and never found again.  They did have some donut peaches and dinosaur plums back so that made me quite happy.  I also found a plum like fruit that looked quite interesting and was ready to give it a try, but when I saw the price--$4.99 each--I quickly put it back.  What was inside of it anyway, gold?

I've been getting sick with colds quite often since my office moved to its new location.  We all have.  I realize that it is not so much our clients that are passing these illnesses on, but rather those who live in the shelter. Why they would build the outpatient clinic, where clients also come in from the streets, on the 10th floor and the two shelters on the lower floors, I'll never know.  In my opinion, we'd do so much better on the lower floors.  Needless to say, it is done now, and we're stuck riding a crowded elevator up 10 flights with the people who reside in the shelters.  Now, please, don't get me wrong.  I am not looking down on them in any way.  I am just stating facts. Many  have always lived on the streets and the little niceties in life, like covering one's mouth when they cough, have never been learned.  Riding that elevator is like stepping into a 'sea of germs'. 

Proper hygiene, as well, is something else that many of them have to be taught. There is nothing worse than riding the elevator in the early morn with someone who hasn't bathed or used deodorant in a week or more or has urinated in their pants and continue wearing them without washing them out.  Sometimes it is so bad I feel like throwing up.  It's a smell that sticks with you for awhile.  I often think if only I could walk up the stairs, but, alas, with my arthritic back I can barely make one flight let alone ten.

I was thinking that soon it will be time to change the look of my blog.  The seasons are changing quickly, and this is one summer, I will be glad to see go.  It's been far too hot and humid to do much of anything.  Whenever I do step out on the weekends, it's always such a relief to get back home.  I feel like I missed out on so much this year.  Perhaps it is because this is my first summer in my new home, and I had planned on doing so much.  But, perhaps it is that this is what was meant to be.  Perhaps slowing down and taking it is easy, taking care of self, is what I am supposed to do.

What is time? The shadow on the dial, the striking of the clock, the running of the sand, day and night, summer and winter, months, years, centuries--these are but arbitrary and outward signs, the measure of Time, not Time itself. Time is the Life of the Soul. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow