Seventeen degrees

January 11, 2022

Seventeen degrees. Seventeen degrees outside. Wow. At 5:33 AM it is mighty cold out there. I just got back from living in central Florida for fourteen- and one-half years. In the winter it might be seventy-five degrees and the snowbirds would be wearing shorts. The frogs, people who were going to be living in Florida until they croaked, would be bundled up with sweaters, jackets and long pants. Burr. It makes me cold just thinking about it. I like being back up north experiencing more drastic seasonal changes, but I have been reeducated about what cold means. Burr. Definitions of truth are subjective and liable to change. Yesterday, the younger of my two grandsons, thirteen, told me he would be bored if he were always happy. I told him he was wrong. Being happy all the time is a great thing. Of course, I do understand being human gets in the way of happiness sometimes. I went to physical therapy yesterday and the woman who is my physical therapist asked me how I was. I had missed a few weeks because I had KOVID and had to be quarantined. I responded to the question by saying I am great. I asked her how she was, and she said, “I’m okay. Same old same old.” Deep breath. I like this woman, and she has been helping me. So, I told her I had a Blog. She said, “You have a Blog?” Everyone is always amazed when I tell them I have a Blog. Anyway, when I told her it was about how to be happy and suggested she might want to read some of it, she said she would. I told her if she read it, her life would never be same old same old again. Wow. My grandson would be bored if he were happy all the time, and my physical therapist thought her day was same old same old. Wow. Sometimes it is hard to change the way you have of perceiving your world. For instance. I went into a grocery store for the first time in more than three months yesterday. My son or daughter-in-law do the grocery shopping. Yesterday someone had to get milk, so I tagged along. I offered to stay in the car, but they said come on in with us, and you will be able to walk around for a bit. I got my walker and off we went. An hour later the container of milk ended up being a stuffed grocery cart. My son said, “Mom, it is never just a gallon of milk.” I didn’t know. What fun it was walking around. I said hi to various other shoppers, made friends with Joey who was stocking some of the lower shelves, and went up and down aisles looking and buying some stuff. Mostly they bought everything I would want so basically, I just looked. Then as they were paying for everything. I walked into customer service and told the guy to have a great day. I told him I liked his hair. It was black, long and very curly. He thanked me. Then I went and sat on the meditation wooden bench. I thought it was just a wooden bench, but as I looked around with my cartoon eyes, I saw a sign right in front of me hanging from the ceiling behind a shelf. The sign said, “Self check out.” How cool is that? So, I sat and checked myself out. I found myself to be in the zone and so happy. I was operating on all cylinders. Wow. I loved being in the grocery store. When you are retired it takes the rush out of rush hour. The whole point is what fun you can find in the most ordinary places. Actually, nothing is ordinary when you are full of love, appreciation and gratitude. Every day is special. Every day allows you to reinvent the ordinary into extra ordinary. What fun I had. Today… I wonder what today will bring. I know it will be a most wonderful day because my cartoon eyes are already popped open. Have an extraordinary day yourself and see how happy you can be.

Granny-o