This week’s photo was snapped by Marty McKelvy on the Fairbanks lawn at Hollywood Forever, with Doug’s sarcophagus above me.
Last week the weather held the kind of big voluminous clouds that marble the sky, blown by intermittent gusting winds, light showers freckling. This week, the coastal sun has reached a blazing height and it feels like balmy summer! The sweet peas are beginning to bloom, a cacophony of birds wakes me in the morning and the barn swallows have returned, spiraling in the blue sky above my house.
I catch myself periodically putting the brakes on to stop and notice the subtle beauty around me…and the so-called little things. I’m teaching myself to slow down and take pleasure in small moments with all my functioning senses. I remind myself that someday I won’t be able to see those clouds or hear those birds with the clarity I can today. Gam has lost her sense of smell, so I try to “stop and smell the roses” for her by drinking in the sweet Datura in my front yard. I pause to relish the fluid functioning of my healthy body and all its orchestrated movement, thinking of Gam rotating from bed to wheelchair assisted, unable to walk. That could be me someday.
When I take the time to notice these little treasures, I can’t help but be filled with gratitude and wonderment. How is it we take all of these gifts for granted? Dissected thus, life is an awe inspired daily adventure. Perhaps this awareness is at least one of the keys to happiness. Most certainly, another key is companionship.
In L.A. over the weekend I had a lovely time—as always—with friends, old and new. We visited Silky’s grave at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and celebrated her 110th birthday with her signature cocktail. There’s nothing like a park full of dead people to make you feel alive! And this week, I’ve made a new friend who shares my avid interest in all things vintage. It’s a kind of homecoming when you find others who “get” you and thrill to the same unusual activities.
If I compile all the treasured “little” things in a week and put them all together, it adds up to a very “big” and rich life. Turns out, I’m not so bad at math after all.
ladysilky 