TWENTY TWENTY
Twenty Twenty used to be known as the definition of perfect eyesight. Now another meaning, another definition. Not for fire nor flood nor fairly close -by Covid 19, the year was memorable. All had their place. From the beginning- prepare to evacuate- the idea was stay in this very moment. In this moment there is no fire here. And there was not. Flood stopped travel for a few days, a forecast of no toilet paper to come. Well supplied here. But with Covid 19, suddenly no frozen peas. No peas? No peas. And so the days and weeks and months passed, winter into spring into summer. What was June? August? No signposts, no memories, no concerts, no airport. All canceled, did not exist.
There was only this moment. This beautiful property with so much work to do. And no rush. Day after day, out and about. The sun shining, the grass growing, the lantana pulling, the dead branches gathering, the burn pile shaping, the roses pruning. Toilet paper on shelves and peas back in the freezer.
The Power of Now. Life – changing book of that name. It is one thing to try to do, work on doing it, struggle.
Living in the moment, it is such an old adage, so familiar, so often attempted. So often failed. Somewhere else to be. Something else to do. More important .
Now, nothing else to do , nothing more important . Only here and now. Eat, clean, meditate, yoga stretches, rest, read, sleep. And go outside: the land awaits me. One day at a time. One hour at a time. What is time? Certainly no covid 19 here and now. That is the secret. The mystery.
And then the evening news, the statistics. New and rising every day. And then the US election. More statistics, day by day, and, finally, hour by hour. More in the present. There is no future. No one knows what will happen next. No one. There is only the present and a distant hazy past.
When did my senses become more acute? The early morning light slanting in, sharp shadows, the evening light magnifying the pink of the bougainvillea bright. Music, listening, hearing more new better, as I never heard before. The intensity of the beauty of the rose. The nearness of now. Pervasive joy.
2021 already looks different. A whiff of planning, hoping, imagining, dreaming, maybe-ing, when-ing.
Not too soon to get back to the present, the blessings of now.
But too soon.