A Survived November
Sunday, December 02, 2018
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| Rosa 'Benjamin Britten' Dec 2 2018 |
Logically to me November in Vancouver would be the ideal
time to contemplate and execute suicide. The days get suddenly darker. It
rains. It is cold and in the few days of sunlight there is no warmth.
Today is December 2 and the sun is at least shining. I
told my Rosemary that somehow we have survived another Vancouver November.
Even though Christmas without children (our youngest
granddaughter is 16) loses the excitement of presents being torn on Christmas
Eve, there are those bright lights and the sheer pleasure of thinking of and
buying presents for the family and friends.
But there are also the dark thoughts of the palpable presence
of those of the family and friends who are no longer around.
We are still in complete delight at staring at our brother
and sister cats (a happy orange and a clean white coat) Niño and Niña. They lie
on our bed acurricados a nice word in
Spanish that almost means to spoon. They are clean, well-behaved and most
affectionate. They have almost made us forget the terrible two weeks of a leak
in our kitchen that was finally fixed by a plumber who in a Sherlockian way
found the leak without tearing up the kitchen all that much.
A trip to Bellingham which featured staring at boxes of Kellogg’s
Spice-Pumpkin Frosted Flakes made it seem like in the USA their rainbow comes
in millions of colour, an over-choice that made me dizzy. I managed to leave
Fred Myers with only a sturdy Made in USA windshield scraper. Bellis Fair Mall
was empty and surely it cannot stay open. It would seem that is is an Amazon
takeover.
While crossing the deck from the living room to my oficina I
spotted the single unompened bloom of the English Rose, Rosa ‘Benjamin Britten’.
Unlike me it does not know that it had no chance of opening. But it soldiered
on.
Perhaps there is a lesson there for me. I should stare at
myself in the mirror and attempt to smile.
