Scenes from a Sunday Sidewalk

A cuppachino at the sidewalk cafe was my solution to having run out of coffee at home. So much happening in the little pockets of tables around me, it is like a mini soap opera unfolding, hold my hand and journey with me.

A family of 4 with a 3 year old daughter with tiara who is so in love with her Dad. She is chatting and giggling and when she sits on the chair her chin is level with the table. The mom is a beautiful blond with long flowing hair and oversized sunglasses, her baby son is getting fed the froth from her cuppachino and loving it. Dad is explaining with the aid of his fingers that he will be 32 in 2 days time and she repeats "thirty two?" as if he may as well be 100.

At the table next to them is a young lad not much older than 8 with very short hair, chubby red cheeks and huge eyes. He is wearing a blue soccer top and sharing his table with his grandparents and one of their friends. The old folks are muttering about the motorcyclists and how some areas are going to hell because no-one cares anymore. The lads eyes opened so wide that I feared they might pop out of his head when he saw the size of his milkshake and he could hardly sit still when his breakfast arrived.. His Grandad is furiously cleaning the screen of his cellphone the same way a mother attacks her children's faces on a Sunday morning before church.

Table three has 3 male friends in their sixties all very specific about their Earl Grey tea and unbuttered toast and tomato (not cooked please). At their table is a lady in her early forties with long dark hair, lovely figure and smoking a cigarette. She seems unattached and you seem to wonder if she is a daughter or a lover, most intriguing. The gentleman next to her stood up and starting packing his pipe with tobacco as if he were about to tell a tale of the high seas to all. His food arrived and he collapsed deflated as if his moment of greatness had been stolen from him. The dark lady without so much as glancing at him put her had on his arm and he seemed to pull himself together again.

Each table touched me in a different manner and it was good to be out in the sun and share breakfast with complete strangers. Open your eyes and look around you and see what is happening, there might be a whole new world waiting to let you in.

Nite all

Friends in Need

Life a certain way of hurting you, letting you get back on your feet and then crushing you. When your chest tightens, you have a lump in your throat and the tears are waiting in the corner of your eyes. I don't want this but it is not about me, its about two dear friends one has been told she has terminal cancer and not long to live and the other is her husband. My dear dear friends, I am so sad and have no idea what to do, I would like to run away and just pretend I didn't hear it. I would easily take the cowards choice.

Tomorrow I have to go see him and hopefully her too and somehow try and keep it all together or not. I am crying as I write this and I know he is hurting so badly. How must she feel to know it is almost done?

I imagine he has shrunk under the strain and I want to hug him and hold him as he cries. Or is it that I want him to hold me as I cry.

Love is so special and can give so much, but when it takes it rips and tears and leaves holes where it used to be. Love is an angry woman committing a crime of passion, nothing is spared as she strikes at all in her proximity.

There is no dignity in pain, in sorrow, in illness. It is real and raw and ruthless.

I cannot continue tonight, I must see my friends and touch them and somehow offer to share this burden.

Nite

Death adds Life

I was wondering about our fascination with death and how we are surrounded by it, live with it and in most cases we aren't even aware of it. Think about your hair. Its basically dead. Yet we cut it, style it, colour it, wash and condition it, but its dead!!

We spend money preparing for when we die and worry about what will or might or may not happen and before we realise it we are overcome with all this "concern". Suppose its a case of worrying instead of living for the moment.

So what's the answer Doc?

Try starting each day with a really big stretch, walk to a mirror and greet yourself with a smile and maybe even a wink. At this point make it a rule to greet the next 10 people you see with a smile and a "good morning" irrespective who they are or if you know them or not.
Then find 10 minutes of "me time" and have a cup of tea or a mug of coffee or warm water and just reflect on yesterdays highlights and smile. If you had a really bad day then be grateful that you have a new day, another chance, a clean slate.
As for the argument that you don't have 10 minutes, I don't accept that. You can't find 10 minutes out of 1440 minutes in a day for you? You are worth it and deserve it.

This won't fix everything, but if we can start with a smile we have a much better chance of it rubbing off on someone else.

Give it a go, all it will cost you is 10 minutes a day.

Nite all.