With the wonders of the internet and social networking I reconnect with friends, Stan and Corinne, whom I haven’t seen in years, about 20 years actually. They live in Calgary and so yesterday I have the chance to visit with them. We talk about the world, the way people think, how things are changing, and regular old “so whatever happened to so-and-so” and whatever else came up. It is great to catch up. We spend three hours chatting about life, the universe and
everything, and they go quickly. I meet their daughter Megan who is lovely, sweet, and very talented. And I think about the good hands the world will be in with her generation. It was a great time.
When I leave their home, I go to Mercato, my favourite Italian restaurant. I do my planning for the upcoming week. Carefully following the method that Alan has helped me create. Make a long list of the things that I will start, and divided it carefully into categories, so that I don’t become overwhelmed but the number of things that I will do. It’s a good thing that I enjoy my work so much. Earlier, I have been teased by Stan and Corinne about my enjoyment of beer, even after explaining there is beer and then there is good beer, and there are also beverages called beer that aren’t beer at all. However, I’m at Mercato and so I drink great wine instead, wonderful Italian wine. Wine with 15% Syrah, my favourite. Now if I can only remember what it was. Oh well, an excuse to go back.
As I make my list I think of my plan to buy a place in Italy some year and hope that my plan will be soon. I remind myself to spend some time to image this goal and the steps to getting there. I also think about Andrea coming to work for me in the next few weeks and how excited I am by that. Andrea is one of the most brilliant people I have ever known, and she has a great understanding of the important things in this world. I think we are going to make a most incredible team. Great things are going to happen as we work together. How very lucky am I.
Max is working in Calgary for the day and finished late. We get a soon great Chinese food at Tai Pan in the heart of Chinatown and get on the road by 10:00 p.m. We arrive back in Red Deer late last night and fall into bed. The clock says 11:53 when I close my eyes.
At 11:59 I am awakened when my cell phone beeps. There is a text message from Leslie saying that they have just arrived home safely from their trip to Winnipeg. We haven’t seen Blaine and Leslie in a month it seems and can’t wait to hear their adventures. I drift back to sleep.
It’s 8:00 a.m. now. As I sit here in my conservatory this morning and try to type Draba our youngest cat walks back and forth across my lap, purring loudly and enjoying being scratched behind the ears. Hair floating everywhere. She missed us being away for two days.I’m sitting in the chair that faces east, the sun beams through the window onto my skin. I love the feeling of sunshine on my chest, and the souls of my feet. I look out into the yard and see the great work that Max has put in this year. The raspberries are heavy with dew, the overripe fruit has dropped to the ground. I may start to pick some today.
The orange lantern has returned and now hangs above the centre of the yard on the phone like that stretches over the year 20 feet in the air. I clipped it on the line last week. It is nylon but looks like a traditional paper lantern, it’s also solar, so in my wisdom I want to put it somewhere that would be bright and full sun. The phone line seems like the best place. At night it should glow a beautiful orange. That day, I come home from work in a wind storm. My orange lantern has been blown up the line and is now hanging 30 feet above the laneway, next to the utility pole. Maybe a squirrel with jump on it and ride it back down. I hadn’t thought it would travel uphill. And as it gets dark, I realize that it has an on switch that is in the off position. So it hangs in the dark outside the yard. I stand in the sunroom and laugh hard.
This morning as I sit here after our trip to Calgary I see the lantern has returned to our yard and begin to hatch a plan to retrieve it and turn the it on so that I may enjoy it tonight. I receive a text message on my phone. It’s from my best friend Alan. I missed him a lot. He and his partner are on the small island of Lundy in the UK where they are enjoying a well deserved vacation. They are gone for 10 days and the day they get back is the day that we travel to New York for the New York International Gift Fair and we are gone for 11 days.
Life is full of possibilities and great connections that hold us together and give us shared enjoyment. I find it so fascinating that strong friendships and love can’t be interupted by a week, a month, or 20 years