Finding small joys, my week so far.

Where once there was a flock of pigeons and a the city that tried to scatter them to the wind, they now gather at my neighbor’s house. They still come to visit me in the morning. The one with the damaged wings (Spooky Punkin) warbles loudly in my back room every morning. It had mites and that was why the feathers were tattered. It will be here safe and sound until it can fly again. That means until it grows new flight feathers.

Yesterday, I was thinking of how much I missed my neighbor’s cat, Loki. He would come beg for food, dash at the pigeons to make them fly, and generally laze about in the shade. His family moved away. But wait, what did I see heading for the water? A hare, or maybe it’s a rabbit. They would never come by when a predator like Loki was here. I hope to see it again.Oh and there are teeny tiny lizards everywhere. That means the roadrunners will be back soon.

A few days ago, I was looking at the monstrous maze of invasive plants that wander through the chain link fence separating my yard from the acequias, a much prettier word than lateral, and was completely lost on how to respond. A ring of the doorbell, a happy synchronicity, an old acquaintance who needed some work, and a few hours later my problematic pile of Alhagi maurorum and it’s local fellow troublemaker Solanum elaeagnifolium, were cleared away. We chatted and caught up on where our various homeless friends and acquaintances have found shelter. My dad would have said I overpaid him, but really the pay was just right, I just didn’t try to get by for cheaper. It’s strange how I was raised to always try and short someone out of a few pennies. It’s not as if poor people need money less than not as poor people.

Sharing what I have is one of the things that makes my day better. I had to learn not to over share.

Biscuit, my beautiful best friend had me up all night. She lays a new set of eggs every 3 – 4 weeks, just because, apparently. The pattern is she lays one egg and ignores it for 48 hours and then she lays the second one. After laying the second one she settles on to nest, where she is treated like the queen she is and showered with breaks and oats and all the seeds of her dreams. This week though, she didn’t lay her second egg within 48 hours. I started to worry, and tried hard not to worry, because birds can get egg bound and die. So I was hovering and reminding myself not to hover, while hovering from afar. She finally laid the second egg an entire day late, and all is well with the world again. To her nothing out of the ordinary happened whatsoever. I need to take a lesson or two.

Today. I was busy from sunup and it’s now 8:45pm. I have to remind myself of all that I did today. Once I get tired, it’s much harder to find the smile. And what did I do today that’s worth my smiling? I got up, got a shower. That may not seem like a big deal but with chaos underfoot, it can be something to be seriously grateful for. The birds, inside and outside, are doing well. The plants and trees are still alive and some are thriving. The rule of gardening where I live is simple. If a plant survives the first year, it’s probably going to do well. This is a pretty unfriendly environment after all. My sourdough bread got setup to bake tomorrow, one of the loaves is a swirled cheese bread. For dinner, I managed to copycat Portillo’s Italian Beef, without being able to taste or smell, but I was commended for the outcome so I will take credit. And now, I’m here. The tedious chores of my day are finished.

Tomorrow. I’ll bake bread early because it’s going to be ridiculously hot by the evening. I’ll do the things that bring me smiles, those are built into my day. It’s easiest to do them first because what we do first is the only thing we’re guaranteed to get done. We make our world, or we let the world make us. Good thing is, we can always change the dynamic.