Thursday This and That

A well-kept garden filled with flowers
Has no room left for weeds to share;
The mind keeps out unworthy thoughts
When loveliness is dwelling there.

Leona Bold Martin

Remember how excited I was that they were going to fix up the front of our building by planting flowers?  The plans I had to sit out there amongst the beautiful aromas? Alas, what you see above is the garden that never was.  So much for these fancy ideas about framing the building in a colorful explosion of beautiful flowers.  The new super had all these wild and wonderful ideas of the things he was going to do to improve the building, and he has done absolutely nothing.  He even pays a couple of teenage boys to do the janitorial duties which are part of his job description.  The old super had his faults--he smoked cigarettes like there was no tomorrow, and there was always the smell of smoke in the lobby--but he took care of this building.  This was his baby, and he was proud of it.  He'd worked here 23 years, and then they fired him.  I can't blame management for that one, though.  His son was always trying to start arguments and pick fights with tenants.  He tried with my hubby but was soon put in his place.  The last straw was when he started something with one of the teenage boys in the building and busted into the apartment to beat the kid up. Is it any wonder the super was shown the door?

This new guy is fairly young.  Hubby and I are both giving him the benefit of a doubt.  Perhaps this is his first super's job, and it is a huge responsiblity entailing much more than painting your 'free' apartment pretty colors and pawning your work on the kids for a few bucks. I'm really hoping that he gets it together because I really 'love' this place.  And, as for the flowers????  Well, there is always next year.

I've signed up to go on a trip with the center to Atlantic City on the 21st.  We're going to the Taj Mahal.  It's been a long time since I've been there.  In fact, I was a little girl at the time, and it had been my first visit to the ocean.  How in awe I was!  Just as I will probably be in awe this time around.  I've never been to a casino before, and they say the Taj Mahal is one of the grandest to be found in Atlantic City.

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure this is really me. Who would have believed that I would be on the go seven days a week?  I, the hermit, who never did anything but go to work. Sometimes it takes a health scare to really wake us up.  Life IS too precious to allow even one moment to pass by without having lived it to the fullest. 

Last night was a quiet night.  I didn't feel much like doing anything.  I couldn't get into reading and aside from 'Royal Pains' there was little I wanted to watch so I dug out the following that I had bought years ago, but never touched...

...and spent an hour participating in one of my childhood passions...coloring.  It really does help to calm the mind.

We are all flowers in the Great Spirit's garden. We share a common root,
and the root is Mother Earth. The garden is beautiful
because it has different colors in it, and those colors
represent different traditions and cultural backgrounds.

Grandfather David Monongye