Random Mid-June Observations

 

How to do …whatever… in June:

* Spend hours at the hairdresser (remember to take a book along) getting lowlights in your hair to remove the highlights you had done last year to blend in the grey. Look at yourself in the mirror, the dark strands, the silver, the grey and say – Damn! I still look good. Put your glasses back on.

* Buy a clamshell of strawberries. Eat them all in a day and wonder why you didn’t buy more. Read an Instagram post which describes how strawberries carry their seeds on the outside (heart-shaped, open-hearted, vulnerable). Think– Damn, why didn’t I realize that before. If we’re going to eat something, we should know more about it.

* Take a walk through a cemetery with a friend and admire the huge, old trees, the lush flowers amidst the ornate tombstones. Feel glad that you are not the only strange one who loves walking through cemeteries. Ponder with friend the houses backing onto here and how would it be to live right beside a graveyard. Disagree with friend that nights would be spooky–No, it would all be beautifully quiet and peaceful, such polite neighbours. Think again – Damn, I might be strange after all. Allow your thoughts to wander to the contradictions in life, how such beauty exists in a place where tears and sorrow once dripped into the earth. Think about how the simultaneous contrasts in life sharply bring each other into focus.

* Sit long evenings on the balcony reading. Realize that it’s been almost two weeks since you watched TV in the evenings, not since the French Open ended. Wonder why you pay so much for cable TV and whether you should give it up. Do nothing because dealing with Bell, or even thinking about them, makes your blood pressure rise. And because Wimbledon will be starting in a week. Wonder if doing nothing is something you do often. Go back to reading.

* Switch a scheduled tennis match to pickle ball instead (also known as Tennis for Old People). Laugh when you see an Instagram post of older people playing nude pickle ball. Look at yourself with your newly lowlighted hair and think no, not that good, neither for clothed pickle ball nor unclothed. Remove glasses.

* Walk by peony bushes, now flopped over and spent, their glorious beauty short-lived. Resist the temptation to make comparisons to life and nude seniors playing pickle ball.  Some things are better left Uncompared.

* Go through old photos when you traveled frequently and hiked vigorously. Marvel at how young and strong you were. And how you wore the same shorts two years apart. Realize those shorts are still in your closet! Resolve to cull closet. Do nothing. Ponder your reasons for traveling then versus now. Think about something you read recently on how we travel for fun or leisure, but the outer journey should really assist with the inner. Agree.

* Go to a Middle-Eastern grocery store and drool over the trays of baklava but resist buying any. Dither in front of stacks upon stacks of various kinds of pita and naan bread. Remember a recent flashy headline “You Only Have So Many Hours Left”. Wonder why you are spending precious time on such minor decisions. Toss some pita into your shopping basket. Buy another clamshell of heart-shaped strawberries, their seeds on the outside.