Trying Times
I’m still unable to discover the second topic I thought would make for a good essay. That’s sad. I mean, I had the idea right there in my head on Wednesday as I drove home from Houston. I’ve tried replaying the events of the day, but nothing works. Maybe it was simply a bad idea, and my brain is exercising editorial control. I had it happen with a song once. I wrote it and when I sang it the first time, I skipped a verse. Everyone liked the song. I realized that verse was extraneous. It was just my brain saying, this doesn’t make sense, so forget it. I did.
But back to the topic, I’m still hoping it will come to me. I’m dogged in that regard, and it may happen because I’m having good days in the yard. I cleaned another batch of deadwood and reset the stones on a little stone wall we have in the corner of the east facing yard at the end of the house. The little bed previously held three crape myrtles, last year it was given over to sunflowers. It’s a bed I tend in the spring but tend to let go of when summer hits and the days are hot and manhandling a line trimmer in the heat is just too much.
Later today, I think I’m going to trim the two Turks caps in the bed with the Mexican Plum. That will satisfy my sense of tidy. I’ll do it by hand just because the slow work will be more satisfying that using a big power tool with the attendant noise. I’ve also decided as to the type of trellis I want for the morning glory, and I’ll start on that this afternoon. The morning, meanwhile, will be given over to getting a haircut and doing a bit of grocery shopping and maybe searching for the lost idea when I’m not really thinking about it. Because sometimes, that’s when things come to you, when you stop trying so hard, and just relax and be yourself.
John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Tale