Thursday, December 17, 2020

Hot Potatoes

Instead of being bummed out about not being able to travel home for Thanksgiving, one of my friends sat down and wrote a list of people that she was grateful for. She wrote that it helped to listen to Natalie Merchant's Kind and Generous while writing such a list.

I'd never heard of Merchant so went to check out the song and it's beautiful. The timing of seeing this friend's social media message was interesting because I have profound gratitude for a gift that she gave me and I have the urge to thank her again...and again and I wondered if there was such a thing as over-thanking... 

Being the primary caregiver for someone is a very lonely experience -- even when you have people that provide relief along the way. 

On a recent walk, I listened to the This Species Moment  episode of On Being and it made me feel less alone in that moment:

Even when we’re by ourselves spatially, like sitting in a room, our thoughts are filled with others; our bodies are even potentially carrying the skin cells of others and a variety of other things...

One of my paternal aunts took care of four really sick people in her lifetime and I'm not sure how she pulled it off...

Sunday didn't go as planned so I wasn't sure what would be for lunch at the beginning of the week. Don't think that I even had oatmeal which I will sometimes eat for lunch. Walked up to my porch and saw a package at the door. As I looked through the bag of snacks and croissant toast (never heard of it), I picked up a foil package and it was a hot potato and I almost wept. The package was from my timely and thoughtful neighbor.