Know Not If It's Dark Outside Or Light

Woke up this morning to a steady, soft rain falling from a gray sky. It is the sort of day that only makes the robins on the lawn happy, while the rest of us try to come up with ways to stay indoors.

My perennials, though, are drinking it in, reaching up toward the heavens with their thirsty roots stretching out below.  If you listen closely, you can almost hear the sound of their "ahhhhhhh" as the liquid life seeps inward and up.

Meanwhile, Roxie, our westie, is laying with her belly toward the heater vent, disgusted by the wetness on her paws and refusing to look at me after her forced trip to the yard this morning.   I am momentarily persona non grata in pooch world.  (Until it is time for lunch, anyway, at which point I'll become the single most exciting person in the history of time.)

The house sits still and silent this morning.  Everyone has gone off into the world and left me sitting here alone with my coffee.

I love Monday mornings for just that reason.  They are an island of silence in an otherwise chaotic, noisy world.

This morning, I can hear the robins calling to one another outside my windows.  And the little song sparrow calling everyone to the morning's feast now that the bird feeder has, mercifully, gotten filled this weekend.  He's perched on the side of the feeder, trilling his little heart out this morning, just on the other side of the glass from me as I sit here typing.

Part of me wants to sit right here for the rest of the day, soaking in the life outside my windows.


But the practical side knows that there are dishes to be done and sheets to change and any number of other tasks that need to be done to bring more order to our little home.  And no matter how reluctant and draggy I feel about beginning the tasks, I will feel so much better once they are done.

That's life in a nutshell, isn't it?

Whatever obstacles may lay in our paths, we always feel better once we have managed to dispatch them or at least wrestle them into submission in some way.  I've been avoiding dealing with a laundry list of "to do" items this weekend, because I am tired and not in the mood and ________________ (insert whiny excuse here).

Well, no more of that.

Today, I will take my lengthy written list and tick off its contents one by one until I am so tired I can't do any more.  I'm sick and tired of "to do" avoidance, and will now proceed to simply do what needs doing.

Only why does it always feel like no matter how much you do, there is always more to be done?

Maybe that's life.  There are always more steps to take, more goals to reach, more mountains of laundry to climb, more whatever it is that needs doing to be done next.

Today, I'm going to try to find some joy in the journey, even if that journey includes taking out the trash.  So pardon me while I crank up some kicky music and get started...

YouTube above:  Heart, singing their live acoustic version of Elton John's Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters. Superb way to start your Monday. Indigo Girls has a great live version, too, that my friend Howie Klein introduced me to ages ago.  Love this song, especially on a rainy day...