I set off on an early morning walk, this mid-spring which feels like summer.
I left my phone/camera behind, it was charging, and at 94% of full charge, felt it deserved the full 100.
Besides, I was inspired by this picture that I saw on the internet… an elderly lady, taking in the sites of the royal wedding party due to drive by… she was peering, radiant… this was a moment she had been waiting for.
All around her were faces, faces with cell phones. All of them. Except her… and she was the one who captured the scene with all of her senses.
I love to take pictures, so I get it… but sometimes, can I just take a break and see my world through an unfiltered lense?
And so the pictures I captured this morning are all in my mind… as I walked the neighbourhood.
I saw a number of guys, work vehicles ready to go, gathering things, dressed in their work-stained clothes… a bob-cat operator who cheerily nodded at me, and I hoped he would stay cool through this warm day… another with a plumbing vehicle, loading up, and I wondered what problems he would solve this day… I thought of my own hubby, dressed in his paint-stained white, painting people’s buildings; he left early to beat the heat. These are precious folk, we need them in our world.
I looked at our neighbourhood yards… and wondered about the people who lived there. There are the well manicured places, beautiful and tidy, and I’m always thinking either they are retired and have a great deal of time, or are well off and can afford some help! Some people just love to garden, it is their world.
Others, and we would probably fall among them, have kept yards, but not perfect. Busy lives don’t always catch all the weeds, prolific at this time of year. It is usually a work in progress.
And then there are the neglected yards, swaths of weeks mixed in with brave flowers making their way to the sun. And before I get annoyed, I wonder… what is their life like? So busy they can hardly breathe? Are they the “sandwich” people, carrying for their elderly parents and their children? Or has illness or difficulty taken up their time, and the yard is hardly a priority?
I think of my dear elderly friend, energetic and full of life in her prime, now grieving her husband and just living has its challenges. He won’t be teetering on their ladder pruning this year, a task she always worried about… I heard that recently a neighbour of hers came over and offered to mow her grass. And even better, he brought over his little girl to visit with her while he completed the task. How delightful… and that is what community should be all about. Do I know my neighbour?
This is my world, my thoughts, unfiltered, on a beautiful spring morning in May.
