The Bench

Ain't That What It's All About Blog

 Didn't feel great waking up. I lay there for a while doing some body breathing. The usual cup of tea didn't help that much. Just a general body malaise was it seemed. Was it the half bottle of mead I finished off. The nasal spray I inhaled before going to sleep? Did I stay up too late trying to finish off that Netflix series that I was almost at the end of?

Maybe a little fresh air. Hat, coat, shoes. I have a little loop, about 12-15 minutes, around my quiet suburban streets. The best part is this one cul-de-sac that backs onto a small woodland preserve, a sort of magical oasis in a congested area. I can walk through it in a few minutes, cross the creek on stepping stones, and back out onto the street.

My day continued. I did some work on my beer book. Then I got distracted. I wanted to buy an air pump. A relative had showed me a cordless one he had bought – I need one! To eliminate the distraction of trips to an air pump every two weeks to feed my leaky tire. At least I have reliable free air at the WaWa instead of having to feed coins into pumps that sometimes don't work. I found one on-line, at a place I never heard of Harbor Freight. It was on the way to my gym – that will work. In the store they had the tool, but it required purchase of a battery and charger.

Oh well, I saw something else I could really use. Adjustable jacks, at half price no less, something that my farm trailer had been crying out for. Waiting in the checkout line I began to realize my mood had changed. I normally would be impatient as the couple in front of me required a lot of attention from the checkout girl. I found myself stocking up on several items at bargain prices. Utility knife, zip ties, led headlight, a glove box charger for $10. I even chatted with the checkout girl.

Sitting in the gym sauna, I tried to figure the cause of my mood change. Was it something I had for breakfast? Was it the hardware shopping spree? I certainly hadn't accomplished much work.

And then it dawned on me. In the woods, someone had installed a bench – one day I saw a bearded gentleman sitting there, meditating it seemed. This day I had taken a seat, first time. I settled my breath. Sounds came to me. A train in the distance, a small plane overhead, birds, different ones, the wind. Meditation is not new to me, but this day I had skipped my morning ritual. What was different? I was outside for one thing, in a different place with different sounds. But mostly I had paused, if only for 5 minutes and it had changed my day.

And ain't that what it's all about?