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Saving Time: 2-minute Warning

by Laurie Klein 49 Chiming In

Saving Time? Yes, let’s.
But first …
my 50th High School Reunion:

Saving Time Cake
photo by Vicki Rieder

Only after flying to Wisconsin
did I realize
my former adolescent peers
were, and ever would be,
the keepers of my awkwardness.

They might bring up Rod McCool’s bash
where, handed my first beer
(no clue about pouring slowly or
tilting both can AND glass)
I baptized myself and
his absent parents’ white couch.

My boyfriend’s chagrin.
Rod McCool’s “!!&%#!!%#!”
Foam and lager and reek … O my!


At our most awkward,
we tell ourselves

we’ll never be cool enough.


Half a century later, I was
that clueless girl again, stalling,
afraid to brave the reunion.

During the first 2 minutes
no one mentioned my beer gaffe
(or numerous other follies).
Within those 2 minutes
and thereafter, I was hugged.
Kissed. Thoroughly welcomed.

I felt like Cinderella
twirling at The Ball.

O to be recognized,
touched at our wincing core,
that guarded, wistful corner
of the heart seemingly
doomed to always feel 16.

2 minutes
and my old outsider status
vaporized. I’d entered
a saving time. A healing time.


Which brings me here, now:


Scheduled to vanish,
2 minutes of daylight will
daily disappear,
until we turn back
our clocks, on November 4th,
and we are awarded 1 free hour
for a little more rest,
a little more dreaming …


Do you need rest?

Or a new dream?


We do.

My husband’s health is spiraling down.
Partly, it’s the genetic hand dealt him,
likely exacerbated
by the aftershocks and insults
anesthesia sometimes visits
upon the psyche and body.

We’ll see a UW Medical Center expert on Muscular Dystrophy
and 3 local specialists in other fields.

And we’ll move. Downsizing is here. For real.

One-story living,
one living story
unfolding …

I’ll share more in future posts.

Meanwhile, we’re turning back the marital clock,
recalling our madcap youth,
Dreamer and me in the Rambler,
cruising into a new town, setting up house.

Saving Time

We’re priming our souls for adventure,

an invitation to the as-yet undreamed …


 

ps  At the reunion, my friend Wendie gave me this:

"Dreamer"

lauriekleinscribe logo

Daylight Saving Time: more here

Catch up on Dreamer’s story here

Stopwatch photo by Matt Lamers for Unsplash

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: 2 minutes, 50th reunion, adolescence, adventure, daydreams, light, rest, saving time September 19, 2018

Getaways, Road Postcard #4

by Laurie Klein 18 Chiming In

I feel so restless lately. The walls seem closer together,
and my days are getting shorter. Maybe I’m the one
getting smaller. . . . What am I looking for?

These words, written by Vinita Hampton Wright, might express your thoughts. Or those of someone you love.

Time to get outta Dodge?

“Just drive,” Hampton Wright advises. “Drive and munch and listen and watch the scenery go by. Feel the sensation of moving somewhere . . .”

Even brief getaways, she says, can move us forward when we feel stuck. Stale. Burned out.

It might be simplest (and cheapest) to ride public transit on a day off, or lunch hour, freeing our hands for felt tips and sketchbook or an adult coloring book. We could knit, daydream, or doze as life slips past.

Is there a window in your schedule this month for a road trip, or even an hour’s drive?

getaway, side mirror viewMaybe you’ve heard Bruce Cockburn’s song, “Driving Away” (click below, to hear).

“. . . the picture of the world that’s coming clear, driving away.”

New View, Fresh Perspective

Although travel-resistant, I return from our getaways with an altered outlook. I see more clearly where I’ve been, which helps me map out—or at least imagine—where I might want to go with my life.

Sometimes getaways offer a surprise opportunity to face an old fear . . .

The past weekend upped my “inner Took” quotient, from 7% to 15%. (“Zip-lining,” Dreamer says, “ranks 50%.”)

32' Ladder at Balcony House

Though chronically altitude-challenged, I scaled

this primitive 32-foot ladder

made from slick tree boughs

up a 100-foot rock face

to visit Balcony House,

the amazing stone remains at Mesa Verde, once occupied by Ancestral Puebloans.

Tall ladders have haunted me ever since panic stranded my childhood self, for hours, on our garage roof. That ladder cast a life-long shadow over my mind.

At Mesa Verde, I did not look down. I lasered-in on each burnished rung. One step at a time. All else fell away (except me, thank God).

Moving forward, one simple act at a time

An epic ladder, a little faith, and the vacation spirit of daring helped me concentrate on each step.

Hampton Wright says that getaways help us “confine [our] concerns to what [we] have with [us]” as well as giving us “a change of scenery.“

Try occasional Hit-the-Road dates, she suggests: solo, or with friends; with or without a plan; with or without a GPS or map (let’s go somewhere beautiful and get lost together); with or without a theme (visit museums, or small-town diners, country churches, old graveyards, parks or fishing holes).

Getaways: Potential Supplies

Bring snacks. Favorite music.

Work? No. Hobby tools? Sure. Pack only those which enhance your appetite for discovery and relaxation.

  • Camera
  • Journal
  • Sketchbook
  • Binoculars
  • magnifying glass
  • Musical instrument
  • Audiobook. (For a week-long trip, try The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, narrated by Jim Broadbent.)

Wear stretchy clothes, comfy shoes. Prepare for weather changes. Or not.

Lucky hat, optional.

getaway ladderWhat’s stopping you?

Is there a “shadow-ladder” barring your way?

Might this be the time to face it, whatever it is?

If you take a getaway, I hope you’ll share . . .

Godspeed!

 

Laurie Klein, Scribe

 

 

Vinitia Hampton Wright, Simple Acts of Moving Forward, p. 29

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: adventure, getaway, moving forward, shadow ladder May 31, 2016

Taking Turns, Taking It Slow

by Laurie Klein 22 Chiming In

orange and blue, taking turns

Hairpin turns funnel our 30-foot RV downward today, through Idaho’s wild canyons.

Yours truly is not driving.

I am 93% Bilbo Baggins, a homebody who loves peace, quiet. Warm food.

Bilbo had to dig deep when the great Gandalf appeared and set him on a quest. But the little hobbit discovered derring-do within—latent “Took” qualities from his mother’s side of the family gene pool.

We’ve been traveling for ten days. Taking turns with the driving? Well, hoping to channel my inner Took, a week ago I “took” the wheel. Did I mention we’re also towing a station wagon?

Blues taking turns in the hills of Idaho

I rollercoasted us up and down and around, again, and again, taking turns, taking it slow. To give Bill a break.

Longest. Hour. Ever.

And then the weather changed . . .

clouds, taking turns over the canyon

Today, from the passenger seat, my senses plunge into spring scenery.

Moraines left behind by ancient glaciers look wetly vibrant. Balsam Root Daisies carpet slopes, glowing patches of gray and chartreuse amid deeper greens.

daisies and grass, taking turns on the hillsides

Camera braced on a raised knee, I shoot through the open window. Colors abound!

pastels taking turns on the hillsides

I can almost hear Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp (who definitely claimed her Took side) singing “The hills are alive with the sound of music.”

What inspired those lyrics? Perhaps, the canyons of Idaho.

Or Isaiah 55:12 (NIV):

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

What an ear-tingling promise for people who failed, so spectacularly often, to listen to God. People who clung to their comforts, idols and appetites.

Which sounds like me.

I wonder what today’s scenery might be broadcasting . . .

colors taking turns on the hills

Married to a roamer, I get to regularly unearth my latent Tookishness. Took and Baggins, taking turns inside me. Is one better?

This world needs those who stir things up.

It also needs those who stir the soup,
and those who keep candles burning on window sills.

What will you stir up today? What’s stirring in you?

 

 

Laurie Klein, Scribe

 

Filed Under: Immersions Tagged With: adventure, Baggins, peace, quest, taking turns, Took May 10, 2016

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Where the Sky Opens, a Partial Cosmography

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