In my mind, May Day has always meant a time to make a fresh start. Winter was finally over (except, perhaps in Colorado, where it snowed on my birthday every single year, putting an end to plans to drive to Denver for dinner or a show.). It was now safe -- and even wise -- to get your plants in the ground, so they could drink in the frequent showers and start growing in the sun before it became unbearably hot and dry. The school year was over, so there was free time to be filled with the things we enjoyed, like travel, and cookouts, and books. And this year? Well it's certainly a time for a new beginning of my own. Time to accept the fact that I now live on my own and that my choices -- while in some ways more open than ever -- are limited in other ways by my new circumstances. So what am I doing? Well, yesterday's venture out to the Garden Center to create a small herb garden outside the front door was one step.   I checked the plants first thing this morning, and they seem to have recovered from their transplant shock. What else? The watch tells me I've stood up three times and burned 31 calories, along with taking 664 steps and covering a quarter of a mile's worth of house-straightening. Not much, but something. I'll also be planning a couple of trips -- not exactly solo ventures, but different enough to pull me out of my comfort zone and remind me that there's still a big world out there with delights to be discovered. More on those plans later, perhaps when they are over! The rest of today will be devoted to pulling together a new chapter in my "work-in-progress." I've hit the exact middle of the story. Time to finish off Part I with an emotional crisis and a family shouting match -- and then a small pointer to Part II and the characters' various attempts to turn their upside down world back together again. |
