Rhythm

Everyday is a new day, even when they feel like the same old day. Work, home, sleep, work, home, sleep.... Stuff in between, but those three things are primarily what my life is about. Every once in a while something happens to change the rhythm of the day.

This week my nephew and his wife are visiting from NY, and my parents are visiting from S.FL. Neither couple is staying at my house, as we no longer have a guest room. Both visits are joyous occassions I don't have the energy for. Like a long drive on a highway, I'm accustomed to and comforted by the steady sound of the tires on the seams of the road. This week is like driving off on a different road with a different seam pattern. Louder and coming more frequently, I long for the quiet steady thud of my usual highway noise.

I know some people would find this a mere existence or a death knell. I don't. I like it quiet and steady. There is so much unpredictable about life. There are storms, and wars, and threats of mass annihilation, global warming, Russians selling nukes to the highest bidder, the next Al Qaida attack on the US pending, people who disppear from your life, death by car accidents and heart attacks on golf courses. There is so much that can't be predicted or planned for. I like the steady rhythm of my usual drive. Sometimes it's the only way I know everything is ok. Sometimes the changing rhythm is the only time I know something is not ok. I can be that way.

The next few work days begin the rhythm of the summer. School is out as of tomorrow, our teachers off, 10 weeks before the start of the new school year. Some of the work I do will change, the pace in which it has to be done will change, the number of people I will interact with will change. Just as I get used to it the change to the pace of the school year will be here. So you see? Just when you're getting used to something and feeling comfortable in it, it changes. The older I get the older it gets. I can be that way.

P.S. A Quote

If you want to know the past, to know what has caused you, look at yourself in the present, for that is the past’s effect. If you want to know your future, then look at yourself in the present, for that is the cause of the future.

-Majjhima Nikaya