This was a good weekend. On Saturday I went to Shanti‘s Summer of Love event in Titusville and got to connect with friends. They had several things going on, music, chanting, vendor booths, Reiki, massage, drumming; they were inside, outside, on the dock. It went on all day and I didn’t get to go until later, but it was the best part of the day. My schedule is such that anywhere I go, I need to be back home by 9:00 at night because I do phone sessions most evenings. I’ve done that for so many years now that I almost never drive after dark. When I do, it’s quite the adventure. Driving home I took I-95, which I seldom do since I enjoy the scenery along US1. Even though it’s longer, I typically take “the green way” everywhere I can. But after dark, whether on US 1 or I-95, all I see is what’s lit up right in front of me. I may as well be driving on the Overseas Highway in the Florida Keys, with nothing but ocean on either side of me. It reminds me of the time my friend Mark Tietig and I sailed up the coast from Miami to Anapolis in 1983. Half the time was spent in the shipping lane offshore in the middle of the night. We’d be so close to the freighters (“the freakers” I called them) and they would move slowly and sliently by, like some surreal city out of a John Waters or Federico Fellini film. I’d feel like an ant standing next to a skyscraper, or a dot in an immense galaxy. That is kind of the feeling I get driving alone at night on I-95 or US 1 as well. Surreal and very reflective.
Sunday morning I went to Shannon Burnett’s Name Your Price Garage Sale and found a great rolling table for $6. I love small tables on wheels; I keep a separate project on each table and then can wheel them in and out of reach as I work on them. Then I went to Unity Church of Melbourne. I got there early enough to listen to the choir (do we call it a choir?) practicing. Great stuff! I got to cut coffee cake into wedges and make lemonade in the hospitality area – they put on quite a spread each week. Rev. Beth gave a lesson from Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements on Don’t Make Assumptions, which was timely for me.
On the way home, I picked up a Vietnamese pho soup from Pho Cali and brought it home for lunch: I got the Pho Tom, the No. 53, which has shrimp, scallions, bean sprouts, basil, delicious broth, culantro. I had them add broccoli. I eat a lot of broccoli. I have the happiest colon on the planet 🙂
After lunch, I just hung around the house, wandering around doing homey stuff. I got a bit of a surprise when I walked in the door and saw the furniture not as I recalled leaving it. Granted I have a brat of a cousin as a roommate, but he’s typically engrossed in work and not rearranging the furniture when I’m out. I quickly realized that I had, the night before, started moving the couch and chairs and tables around, and then just never glanced back for a final look from the entrance before I went to bed. I didn’t go into that part of the house before I left Sunday morning, so when I returned it was the first time I’d seen the furniture in the new arrangement. I love it when I can surprise myself like that.
I find that often happens when I am in the Now Moment. I am just flowing along from project to project, and not really giving much thought to anything; just kind of observing whatever floats up in front of me. That’s a very fun and freeing place to be. Kind of like being drunk or being in love, which is almost the same thing, I guess. You’re very In The Moment With It All and that doesn’t always translate into remembering specifics later of how you got from point A to point B.
It used to irk me when I’d forget something, especially something like having rearranged the entire living room the night before. It took me years to realize that I didn’t need to hold a lot of useless information in my head.
When I finally got that, I was able to really appreciate the fun little ways my mind tricks me into coming into the Now Moment.
Now if I can just stay there…
The Magical Frittata and the Coast Guard Boarding