Happy in Spite of Myself
It's a perfect July morning in Port Townsend. My friend Diane invited me to meet her for coffee, always a happy way to start a saturday: a dark chocolate mocha latte at Lehani's on Taylor Street while catching up with my dear friend. We had lots to share after her two week visit with her granddaughter, which concluded at a picnic at my house where Caitlin became fast friends with my neighbors' children, playing one spontaneous game after another, the girls walking hand in hand next door to check out the chickens and turtles and dog.
The way things go in a small town, it's easy to have a conversation interrupted with someone dropping by to join in, and of course that happened again today. Something new in my life will wait until another conversation, but I met another of Diane's many friends here as we sat and talked.
And then there was the wedding. Not an actually wedding out on the street, but there in the sunshine in front of Lehani's today we met, not only the usual visitors and their wonderful pooches, but one after another of the beautifully dressed and adorned members of a wedding party. They were heading into the Rose movie theatre, for their ceremony. Everyone looked tip top, from groomsmen to flower girls and then, of course, the bride, sweeping by in her gorgeous antique silk gown, her head wreathed in flowers. Grace is her name. The family is known here for having musically talented children, all grown now. A brother, Paul, walked up to us and chatted a few minutes. Carrying his guitar he said he'd be playing a couple of Beatles tunes, including "I Will."
I want to tell you something. I have been pretty low for a while, in one way. Feeling bad because I've gained a ton of weight…well, fifty pounds or so. Partly, I overeat. But also, where I used to walk 4 or so miles a day here, five or six days a week, now I barely take walks at all. There's no cartilage left in my feet, says the doc, accounting for the pain. Well, and some sort of cyst on the bottom of my right foot isn't helping. In any case, I hear my mother's voice in my head. As she aged she kept chastising herself, saying how lazy she was. She wasn't. She was old, overweight, and tired and unwell. I do not like, at all, feeling that I am like that at 66. Frankly, this last fifty pounds is killing me. Because I already weighed thirty pounds more than I did when I birthed my children, nine months pregnant. So of course I want to lose the excess, as much of it as possible. Today I'll begin again to make healthier choices. And to use an exercise bike someone gave me two weeks ago, which now resides by the front window in my living room. I need energy, and even before I lose much weight, that will increase if I eat the way I do when I feel great and get some daily exercise.
I need energy just to keep up, but also to more fully enjoy my life and to feel, again, like there's still some time ahead of me to do that. I was smart when I moved here and bought a small, manageable house. I am not managing it well but I easily can get to that point. I have this cute little electric truck that I drive all over town now and people who don't even know at me smile and wave everywhere I go. I thought about that this morning as I was driving downtown to meet Diane. She likely rode her bike five miles to town, played basketball hard for an hour before showing up in her Port Townsend Drizzle team shirt to have coffee with me. I can't measure myself by Diane. Or the fortyish woman next door, beautiful and healthy and tending her lush garden. Life dealt each of us different cards and we're each doing the best we can. A sweet little girl in a red dress gave me a hug before I left this morning and her energizer bunny brother flashed a smile. Strangers smiled and waved, young and old. On my way home from downtown, I drove through the park at Fort Worden, down by the beach, watching tourists sun and walk and enjoy their vacations. And I got to come home. Because I live here.
I remember my sis and I, years ago, were on Block Island for a week's vacation, wishing that someday we could live somewhere as beautiful and special as that. And now I do. And she's coming in a couple of weeks to have a week of vacation with me and her eldest grandson. He'll be at Marine Science Center camp for the week during the days and we'll be having fun, too. I can't wait to share this time with them. So what if I'm behind in my chores around here? So what if I'm not at my best physically at this moment? To be honest, I'm at my best heart and mind-wise and that's pretty darned wonderful.
When I got home today there were flowers in a little vase on my doorstep, from the girl in the red dress, and chard, bunched in a glass of water, from her mom. Health and beauty and the full joy of life
. It's all right here.
It's a perfect July morning in Port Townsend. My friend Diane invited me to meet her for coffee, always a happy way to start a saturday: a dark chocolate mocha latte at Lehani's on Taylor Street while catching up with my dear friend. We had lots to share after her two week visit with her granddaughter, which concluded at a picnic at my house where Caitlin became fast friends with my neighbors' children, playing one spontaneous game after another, the girls walking hand in hand next door to check out the chickens and turtles and dog.
The way things go in a small town, it's easy to have a conversation interrupted with someone dropping by to join in, and of course that happened again today. Something new in my life will wait until another conversation, but I met another of Diane's many friends here as we sat and talked.
And then there was the wedding. Not an actually wedding out on the street, but there in the sunshine in front of Lehani's today we met, not only the usual visitors and their wonderful pooches, but one after another of the beautifully dressed and adorned members of a wedding party. They were heading into the Rose movie theatre, for their ceremony. Everyone looked tip top, from groomsmen to flower girls and then, of course, the bride, sweeping by in her gorgeous antique silk gown, her head wreathed in flowers. Grace is her name. The family is known here for having musically talented children, all grown now. A brother, Paul, walked up to us and chatted a few minutes. Carrying his guitar he said he'd be playing a couple of Beatles tunes, including "I Will."
I want to tell you something. I have been pretty low for a while, in one way. Feeling bad because I've gained a ton of weight…well, fifty pounds or so. Partly, I overeat. But also, where I used to walk 4 or so miles a day here, five or six days a week, now I barely take walks at all. There's no cartilage left in my feet, says the doc, accounting for the pain. Well, and some sort of cyst on the bottom of my right foot isn't helping. In any case, I hear my mother's voice in my head. As she aged she kept chastising herself, saying how lazy she was. She wasn't. She was old, overweight, and tired and unwell. I do not like, at all, feeling that I am like that at 66. Frankly, this last fifty pounds is killing me. Because I already weighed thirty pounds more than I did when I birthed my children, nine months pregnant. So of course I want to lose the excess, as much of it as possible. Today I'll begin again to make healthier choices. And to use an exercise bike someone gave me two weeks ago, which now resides by the front window in my living room. I need energy, and even before I lose much weight, that will increase if I eat the way I do when I feel great and get some daily exercise.
I need energy just to keep up, but also to more fully enjoy my life and to feel, again, like there's still some time ahead of me to do that. I was smart when I moved here and bought a small, manageable house. I am not managing it well but I easily can get to that point. I have this cute little electric truck that I drive all over town now and people who don't even know at me smile and wave everywhere I go. I thought about that this morning as I was driving downtown to meet Diane. She likely rode her bike five miles to town, played basketball hard for an hour before showing up in her Port Townsend Drizzle team shirt to have coffee with me. I can't measure myself by Diane. Or the fortyish woman next door, beautiful and healthy and tending her lush garden. Life dealt each of us different cards and we're each doing the best we can. A sweet little girl in a red dress gave me a hug before I left this morning and her energizer bunny brother flashed a smile. Strangers smiled and waved, young and old. On my way home from downtown, I drove through the park at Fort Worden, down by the beach, watching tourists sun and walk and enjoy their vacations. And I got to come home. Because I live here.
I remember my sis and I, years ago, were on Block Island for a week's vacation, wishing that someday we could live somewhere as beautiful and special as that. And now I do. And she's coming in a couple of weeks to have a week of vacation with me and her eldest grandson. He'll be at Marine Science Center camp for the week during the days and we'll be having fun, too. I can't wait to share this time with them. So what if I'm behind in my chores around here? So what if I'm not at my best physically at this moment? To be honest, I'm at my best heart and mind-wise and that's pretty darned wonderful.
When I got home today there were flowers in a little vase on my doorstep, from the girl in the red dress, and chard, bunched in a glass of water, from her mom. Health and beauty and the full joy of life
