And yes, apparently, we are. Because we have been visited! By the Norwegian Carrot Cake Spammer! I was prompted to look up the word “blunt” used in the negative comment, which included the injunction to investigate Norwegian Carrot Cake . (Spelt flour, sea buckthorn. Healthy, for sure, and ingenious, using a seaweed as a cake ingredient.) Others, we learned, have also been visited by this person who seems to stop in, sock you in a back handed sort of way, and leave untranslated directions for this unusual creation as resolution, in the name of bluntness. And, shockingly, Gentle Reader? I’d thought it was the wrong word, but as it happens, it was totally apropos. “Blunt- Dull in understanding, not acute.” My goodness. It dovetailed nicely with this week’s ongoing lesson, which is don’t take things personally. Anyone can be blunt, after all. Move along.
Meanwhile, it being February and Valentine’s thingummy and what not, I was thinking about love, the power thereof, and how it really is the substrate of everything, and an application of love can make almost anything better. And that application can be the simple act of listening. Also? leaving judgement at the door, simply being present and observing what is there. Mostly we don’t know enough to judge another, even though we can make decisions about whether we want to be in their vicinity or not. But in the course of getting through a day, many seem to operate under the rule that if you can’t say something nice, think harder. Surely you’ll find SOMETHING. (*I* like a song lyric we heard recently about playing music in bars for drunks: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say it more than twice.”) In all the life and death struggles of last week, about who did what and said which and what not, suddenly I was aware that mostly it was totally unimportant and related of course to all the stuff we all carry around with us, from the past as well as the imagined future, and project out into the world as if it makes sense to do so. Really, much easier to just let it go since it isn’t really helping one. Deep breath. Smile. Keep going, keep doing your work, maintain balance. In short, be where you are right now. Remember it’s more important to be happy than to be “right” for the most part. Plato reportedly said that since we are all fighting huge battles, we must be kind. It’s pretty amazing, really. I hope to be able to stay in that admittedly precarious balance more, and with fewer trackless wastes of off-road cursing and commentary, by me or Whoever. Long and winding road, indeed.
Boozilla: learning to fly one room at a time 