Imagine the Possibilities

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. Thanks to the co-authors of              Two Writing Teachers for creating this  supportive community.

I run my fingers over the scratches on the door frame that tell of Piper’s displeasure at being left in the bedroom.

           No worries. We can fix that up with a little paint. This molding has been repainted many times.

          Look, you can see the teal paint under the scratches. Reminds me of when I was a teenager.

And suddenly I’m remembering all the transformations the room has been through in the thirty-nine years we have lived in this house.  Allan and I spent months scraping off the faded flowered wallpaper left by the previous owners, expectant parents preparing a nursery. I scoured wall paper books until I found the perfect Noah’s Ark print for the one large wall without a window. A beautiful shade of sunflower yellow glowed on the rest of the walls as we started a family with Brian, and then Ann.

The nursery, later officially named Ann’s room, got a make-over for her fifth birthday. The walls became a ballerina pink to match the white canopy bed with the flowered bedspread. Curtains made from sheets coordinated with the bedspread danced in the breeze – a perfect little-girl room.

But little girls grow up. As a teenager, Ann wanted her room to be teal and black. Yes, it was the late nineties. But black walls? Really?  We worked on a plan and together she and I spent a hot summer afternoon sponge painting that one large wall without a window. Splotches of teal and black and mauve screamed at us. We made the remaining walls an off-white, and the trim a bold teal. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds, although I do recall Brian commenting that it looked like someone just threw up on that wall.

When Ann left for college we repainted the walls a neutral cream (mostly to hide the sponge splotches on the one large wall without a window) but left the teal trim. Then, after she moved to California, the room became an official guest room of soft yellow and oyster ivory. …

I run my fingers over the scratches on the door frame that tell of Piper’s displeasure at being left in the bedroom.

        No worries. Just one more coat of paint and another memory for this room.

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. Thanks to the co-authors of              Two Writing Teachers for creating this  supportive community.

One night last week I was driving home from having dinner with some friends. Since I had traveled this road hundreds of times before, I was more or less on auto pilot. All of a sudden I gasped! There was someone in front of me waving two large red cones. Luckily, I saw him in time to stop…but just barely. I could see that nearby there was a car that had driven off the road into a telephone pole, and they were getting ready to tow it out. There was no ambulance or other people standing about, so the accident had probably occurred several hours previously. In a few minutes I was waved through, but I couldn’t help but think what might have happened. My head was filled with the conversations of the evening, the laughter and shared good company. I was not in the moment, and it could have been disastrous.

It is not OK to go through life on auto pilot. It is not OK to check your email in the middle of a conversation with a friend. It is not OK to be thinking about the laundry at home, or the grocery shopping that needs to get done, or the wonderful dinner you just had when someone is asking for your help. It is not OK to ever be anywhere but in the moment.

I thought about that incident all weekend. It reminded me of how precious time is and how we must choose wisely how to spend it. There may not be another chance.

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. Thanks to the co-authors of              Two Writing Teachers for creating this  supportive community.

Yesterday I read this in Textbook Amy Krause Rosenthal:

I tend to have trouble with ceiling fan strings. Pull it once to stop? Twice?

             In trying to turn it off, I will just speed it up – great, now it is spinning around

             so fast that it’s wobbling almost violently.

I immediately connected! I’m never quite sure what speed the fan is on and if pulling the string will make it go faster or slower. Is there one more slow speed after this? Sometimes I can spend a full five minutes trying to get the ceiling fan speed just right. And there seems to be no learning curve. I start over every time trying to figure it out.

That got me thinking about some other things I just don’t get.

The ice maker in the freezer. Is it on or off? There is a switch inside with a straight line on one end and a circle on the other. The line means ON and the circle means OFF (or is it the other way around?) And should it be in or out for ON? Every time, every time, I have to stop and think, ask Allan, or consult the manual (which really doesn’t help much). As a result we usually have an abundance of ice or none at all.

The light switch in our family room. There is a panel of three switches just inside the sliding doors that lead to our sunroom. One operates the outlet for the table lamp, one controls the ceiling fans (let’s hope they are on the right speed!), and the other is for the outside light. The switches have been there for at least twenty-five years, but I still cannot remember which is which. Allan just laughs every time, shakes his head, and comments, “Someday you’ll learn.”

I’m not so sure about that.