Friday, January 18, 2013

Be Careful What You Wish For

I was having one of those days. My husband and son work out of our house and somehow I always gets sucked into the middle of things. It doesn’t seem to matter what I’m doing, I get interrupted anyway. This time I was reading a book, or trying to, when the interruption came. It started to get to me and then I did what I always do when it starts to seem to be too much.

I think about this woman I saw one day when we were having lunch at the Corner Bakery. She was around my age with perfectly coiffed blond hair. You could see she’d taken her time getting dressed. Her makeup perfectly done and her outfit carefully chosen. She wore jeans and heels - a look I will never understand - with a shawl perfectly arranged over her shoulders and held in place by a lovely pin.

She moved with leisure and I would bet that she left a neat house with the beds made and no breakfast dishes in the sink. Probably not even a coffee mug left anywhere. She set her tray down on a table where I had a perfect view of her. The speed she ate her meal said she wasn’t in a rush to get anywhere. I was sure she had no to do list that had more chores than there were hours in the day. I imagined that after she finished her lunch, she would wander through the stores in the outdoor mall and go home when the afternoon was waning. She’d turn on the lights and maybe the TV for company while she looked over whatever she’d bought. Unlike the chaos at my house, hers would be peaceful, deadly peaceful.

I can just see that quiet house and the hours moving by slowly as she waits for her husband to come home. I imagine her as bored and with nothing much to do.

It always makes me rethink my situation. I’d rather have my messy life full of dishes in the sink and serendipity last minute walks at dusk. So what if there are days when I never get out of my gym clothes. I’d rather have the interruptions and more things to do than there is time to do them. So what if I have cats draped over my head while I’m sleeping or that the backyard looks like a graveyard of fallen palm fronds. I am never bored and my life is never dull, routine or predictable. I am constantly surprised to see where the day ends up taking me. There's always tomorrow to read that book, anyway.

9 comments:

Linda O. Johnston said...

I'm with you, Betty. My current office is in the middle of everything so I'm interrupted a lot--most often by my dogs. But I wouldn't have it any other way!

Betty Hechtman said...

Linda, I like to be in the middle of everything, too.

Planner said...

An imperfect life is perfectly perfect! You're so right, and it's good to remind ourselves how interesting our personal chaos can be.

Betty Hechtman said...

Planner, life is hardly orderly. It is so much easier if you just accept it

Camille Minichino said...

Such a great reminder, Betty. I often whine about how much I have to do, how overbooked, deadlines . . . today I'll just be thankful!

Monica Ferris said...

But be careful of envying that perfectly put together woman. Maybe she's got OCD and can't go out unless she's dressed just so. Maybe she's going insane trying to juggle a murderously suspicious husband and an impatient lover who is turning out to be a control freak. It's been said that if all of us could put our troubles in a big common pile and could choose someone else's troubles, we'd look them over and take back our own.

Betty Hechtman said...

Camille, we are just lucky we have so much to do.

Betty Hechtman said...

Camille, we are just lucky we have so much to do.

Betty Hechtman said...

Monica, I love your thinking about the possiblities of the woman's love triangle and keeping our own troubles.