So Sylvie

Life’s lessons go on, and on…

Last night I was telling Marcel a story of when I was a young girl of ten, on my summer vacation in the farmland of British Columbia. It was a bucolic landscape; quite a contrast to the cement of San Francisco. In the fields I would collect herbs for my powerful witch’s potions, and in the woods I created little rooms with mossy logs for benches. One of my favorite things about being there was that the neighbor girl had a horse, Gypsy, and a pony, Whiskey. One day I went for a ride on Gypsy, running her through the fields, jumping her over streams and logs. But we got going pretty fast and when she rounded a bend I slipped from her bare-back, down around in front of her neck, and landed on the ground in front of her. I saw and felt it all in slow motion, watching this 1,200 pound creature coming down on me. Amazingly, she was as nimble as a cat and shifted her weight so as not to step on me. All that happened was that she clipped my collarbone and top lip with her hoof. And then she stopped and waited for me. I got back on her and rode her home. I felt fine. Wiser even.

Marcel was tickled to hear such a dramatic story. Well…I took him with me today to go and pick up some furniture for the shop. It took me ages to figure out the jigsaw puzzle configuration to get the pieces into the car, but we did it, all but one dining chair that had to go on the roof. The chair was upholstered and it was threatening to rain at any minute. I had to stop for gas. I felt pressured by the impending rain as I pulled into the gas station.

Do you want to know what a good example of being overwhelmed and moving way too fast is? Well I’ll tell you. It’s driving away from the gas station with the hose still firmly inserted in the side of your car. WHAT?!! Yes, it’s true. I did it. The sound of the hose ripping from the pump and from my car. The screaming of the onlookers. "Dear me, what can the matter be?" I am still in shock. I don’t do these kinds of things. There goes at least a week’s profits from business at the shop. Oh how utterly stupid!

Now, do you want to know what a good example of overstating-the-obvious is? Well I’ll tell you that too. I stopped the car in the middle of the gas station, with the hose dangling from its side, and walked into the office and announced that I had pulled the hose from the pump. To which, the woman behind the glass partition replied, "That’s because you didn’t remove it before you drove away." To which I responded by throwing my arms up the air in a sort of Hail Mary motion with my mouth agape. Well duh!

Oh my dear. Life is troubled. Life is hectic. Life in the modern world is more and more challenging. All the juggling of all the balls. And yet, you solve things, you re-solve things, you resolve things, and keep on going. You keep going because you have survival instincts that tell you to do that. Instincts that tell you that there are good times ahead, and good times in the midst of the modern madness. You have instincts that tell you to get back on the horse.

Mercy………Merci.