“Want”
So easy to say and yet so hard to get there.
Sitting at my desk, one of my inspiration corners.
…behind the story.
I went for a walk yesterday to give out some leaflets in mail boxes in a suburb some distance away. Being a hot day I dreaded it but got on with the job. As I walked along I observed around me. I had taken a folded piece of paper and biro in my carry bag and soon dragged it out as I became absorbed in the happenings and sights, all different in every place I walked past. My A4 sheet of paper folded into four soon was covered with line after line after line of what I was seeing. That was only one long street of about 100 houses.
I moved the car a few times to continue along the various streets still carrying that precious piece of paper as I put things into pockets and out of pockets in the process.
The street ambience was changing from pleasant with character to tired, dusty and weary and unkempt. But in between as I had just written luscious grass next to dry crackling grass my world wanted to dissolve into tears…big gulping tears, because I had put my carefully collected painting of words into someone’s letterbox instead of the leaflet itself. I noticed it two houses along. Back tracking and thinking I’d dropped it I discovered of all places for it to happen was at a locked mail box with locked high gates and roller shutter windows…ahhhh
…all I could do was to leave a note in mail box explaining what happened including my mobile number. I haven’t heard back, even dropping by this morning to no avail.
I so wanted to have those notes back, but wanting won’t help. I’ll either have to go back and try to recapture the atmosphere with pen and paper or attempt to retrieve from my mind like that party game “what is on the tray”….looking at 30 items on tray and then writing down from memory. Too too hard and far too many impressions.
Aging leaning house, with fence like crooked teeth next, to tiny old triangle of a park with old fashioned long chained swings idly moving with ghostly memories. Worn Wooden seat used by long gone children at play. High push, low glide, wavering wobble with shrieking laughter. All now silent and alone.
Gardener thinking he is still in his home country. Crowded suburban front garden full to bursting and overflowing with fruit trees and all manner of vegetables and herbs. Such a joyful atmosphere. Reminds me of maybe Italy in the country with their small plots but every corner filled with usefulness.
Skinny but long vegetable garden wrapped round the sunny side of a brilliant white house with crazy winding track of a path edged with ancient bricks like jagged points.
Pictures, Impressions, reminders of far away lands and families, smells of Middle Eastern cooking, whiff of a herb as I brush past a huge bush of Basil covered with flowers and the attendant bees….
…so I return home and water my own tiny pin prick of a vegetable garden which really is more like a herb garden with Basil, Rocket, Spring Onions, bit of spinach and rhubarb. Lettuce and tomatoes long finished with the heat.
Back now to the every day, with memory an ache of a oh so tiny thing by life’s happenings of what I lost, but hope with action to get back.
Back to work men repairing a leaking pipe which happily was on the Water Board side so we had no bill to pay!
Such is life. If we pick ourselves up and continue on we won’t have lost.
A comment I once read…
“What did I learn that I didn’t expect…”
Well maybe me observing my unfamiliar surroundings along every step of the way helped to complete a job which in itself was wearisome on a hot day! This wasn’t expect, until having gone quite some distance I noticed lifted spirits and a savouring of the added beauty of the ordinary. It took no extra effort just a refocusing of the mind.
What about you? Do you have any unexpected gems to share with readers? Do you think they made a difference?
So on we go and with a smile.
Have a lovely day one and all and thanks for visiting,
Alexa
Photos and words belong to www.Alexa-simpleliife.com
Except where stated.
Hope you get your notes back, Alexa! How frustrating! xo
Thank you for your comment. It would be a bonus getting the notes back but I’m not holding my breath….I came away with lots of pictures which I have to drag out of my brain. Take care. Alexa
AH I do hope that you get your notes back Cold here in the North / USA so it was fun to imagine being the opposite for a bit And yes your leaky pipe is the opposite of our troubles here…snow and ice melt and rain and more snow on the way, but such is winter and the sun still rises every morning!
Hi Debra, thanks for connecting and your comment….and YES as you say “and the sun rises every morning”. Blessings