Feathers in a Stream in 2020

I’m a feather-in-a-stream sort of gal, happiest just moseying along. Today was like that all day. I awoke early and knew I needed to get up so I could catch the yard crew and remind them they needed to repair an underground hose that had been cut last week. They cut it several weeks ago. So early I was outdoors in my night gown, to be sure I marked the spot of that hose in my border out back. (High fence, private back yard, re: night gown.) Then coffee. This and that and washing, dressing…etc. Crew arrived and I reminded them and they did the work. I had a schedule for the day.

I always think as I turn off the lights at night what two chores are the most important to accomplish in the next day. Yes, I think of that – but often don’t do either. The stream doesn’t take me there when the next day flows. Today that was true. I had breakfast, drank coffee and listened to the news, got out all the info regarding upcoming insurance issues and bids for a new roof that I must choose from. I watched news on the TV and thought I’d read more of the new book I’d started last night. Had lunch. Meandered through several hours....watched a film. Talked with my insurance agents twice. Read the policies. Read the newspaper.

I didn’t accomplish anything that was on my schedule. Maybe tomorrow. No one visits so I wasn’t wary of being caught with the house untidy. The broom, electric sweeper, and dust pan were cluttered at the kitchen entrance. Still are. Hopefully I will catch everything up tomorrow. Doesn’t faze me that it wasn’t done today.

So it goes. I loved the day. I ended it watching the 1939 version film of Anne of Green Gables. I’m so tenderhearted toward Anne Shirley. I found the novel in my school library and there it was on the cover, my middle name, Anne…and inside was a girl like
me! Impulsive. Dream-laden. A reader. Always talking. Getting in trouble. Growing up. I smiled all the way through the first half of the film. It matched my feelings about the characters perfectly. Later it was less like my response to the book.

Kermit and I visited Prince Edward Island and we saw the play there for tourists, Anne of Green Gables. I cried when watching the play, and when he asked why, I tried to explain it. He didn’t understand, not until I asked him…suppose you could visit Roy Rogers home and stable and see the horses…walk through all the places you saw pictured in the movies you loved when you were a boy. And then his smile indicated he understood. I’d always afterward wanted to do that, if it were possible, but we never did.

Before we left the Island I had the pleasure of walking down the lover’s lane with Kermit; we were a bit older that Anne and Gilbert were in the novel but it was a memorable experience. A bit of romance I’d dreamed of when I first read the novel. I also read the autobiography of the author who’d grown up there, brought the book home and read it.

A long life, I am learning, truly can be expanded by memory rendering back these many experiences that were significant in making me the woman I’ve become. The pandemic has made time for memories I might have not remembered were I still as busy as I used to be.