Wow, this week has been quite a roller coaster ride. So many things have happened this week.
I will begin last Friday when I was on a walk. It was a beautiful day so I couldn't resist wandering a bit, but when I finally arrived at my destination there were several people there. One of the men greeted me and addressed me as, "My Lady." That took me by surprise and it took me a second to realize he was not joking nor was he demeaning me. In fact, he partially bowed to me and offered me his spot. This was a bit awkward for me and I confess I laughed a little bit to try to relieve the awkwardness I was feeling. I did not take his offer, not that I wasn't thankful, but because I wasn't expecting to be there for long. The whole time and afterwards I kept wondering why he addressed me in that manner. It was a moment of mixed emotions. I was half confused and half honored. That was the oddest moment I've ever experienced.
Everything went back to normal until Sunday when early in the morning I got hit by sickness. It was a stomach bug and I also had a headache so bad that it was giving me vertigo. Hate that. Spent the whole morning dealing with the nausea and headache. Clearly, it was not fun, but I spent quite a lot of time listening to good music and other little things that make me laugh and despite the pains in my head and stomach, I soon found myself laughing and smiling through it all. I found it interesting that as soon as I started doing that I started feeling better. My headache and stomachache lasted for about two days, but it was mild and I was able to eat and drink. I couldn't help but think at this time of all those people who have health issues that cause them to experience this daily and I cannot express enough how much I empathized with them. Bless them wherever they are.
And on the week goes....I decide to go on yet another walk, but it turns out that it's nearly 80 degrees and the sun is in its full glory. Beautiful thing, yes, but also not such a good thing for me. The curse of the extremely fair skin into play again. My walk was not much more than 15 minutes long. I got home and later in the day looked into the mirror to discover it was a touch too much sun. A shade of pink was right on my shoulder where my shirt ended and my skin began. I'm just happy it wasn't worse. More than my skin gets affected when that happens, i.e. moodiness is more abundant and my Mr. Hyde might just emerge. The time has come to be more careful.
To end it all is happy news! My rose transplants are growing! That is, all but one. I got one that couldn't survive, but every one of the others has buds growing and a few of them have already turned into new leaves and branches! Yay! I'm excited to see them grow. It may be a while yet for them to have enough growth for flowers, but I'm beginning to see new young leaves and that's enough for me right now. The most surprising part of this whole experience? The roses that I thought would survive with the strongest roots were actually the ones that struggled the most. In fact, one of them was the one that died. All the scrawny little ones I transplanted on a whim because they were getting overgrown in their old spot are actually thriving. There's something behind that, perhaps meaningful enough for a new poem. I'll have to consider it.
May I add just one more final thing? I love people. Despite my quiet tendencies I have been the luckiest person in the world to have encountered the most wonderful people, one's I could look up to and trust in my tender years as well as now. How I got to be so blessed by such a fortune I don't know. Right now I have mixed feelings with the realization that there is no way I am going to have an acquaintance with all those amazing people out there and feeling grateful for the ones I have been fortunate enough to meet. We see so much anger and chaos going on around the world that it's easy to forget that there are good people out there.
I don't like what's going on out there any more than anyone else. In fact, I have a family member very near the Baltimore riots (practically next door) and it's been quite a ride watching what's going on. I just wish that all sides could become what I've often heard it referred to as "color blind" where one could look past a person's skin color. Some of the most wonderful people I have met in my life were not the same as I. The variety makes this world beautiful and there are many wonderful people of all types everywhere.
