Tagged: wonderfulworld

23
Mar
2019

SWEEPING THE CLOUDS AWAY

It’s rarely my own birthdays that give me pause, although some of them can’t just be ignored or glossed over. It’s the birthdays of those younger than me that instill a little frisson of horror about how time is flowing in only one direction. Today marks the 50th birthday of my little brother. My baby brother. Even my sister’s birthdays, though she is also younger than me, don’t have quite the same effect as my little brother’s or my children’s. At the same time that you want to celebrate their passing into a new year, you want to just stop...

24
Feb
2019

LIZ IN LISBON

We were supposed to be three friends going to Lisbon but Camilla was super sick the whole week before and on Friday, 2 days before we were to leave, she called Debbie and I and told us she was probably not going to go since she was still so poorly. WAAH! What a bummer. She was able to get her airline ticket refunded but it ended up being just Debbie and I headng to to Portugal last Sunday. Despite our disappointment about Camillla’s absence, we managed to have a good time. I had so many people tell me how great...

06
Aug
2018

HOT POTATO

I’m normally about as far from being a gardener as you can get. I don’t like being outside all that much. I loathe having dirt under my fingernails. Bending over is hard these days thanks to back issues and kneeling is out completely. That said, I like gardens. I like flowers. And I like eating things. This year has been a banner year in the Ek family backyard, where we’ve managed to grow several…crops. Thanks to getting net on the cherry tree, we enjoyed a month-long bonanza of delicious sweet cherries. It’s hard to believe I had practically never even...

28
Jul
2018

PLUMBING THE DEPTHS

I just realized what is wrong with me. I’m in a rut. You know the one, maybe…where life is moving smoothly along and nothing much is happening; certainly nothing worth writing about, and you don’t feel particularly sad or happy or really, anything. You just get up in the morning and do the things you have to do: shower, dress, brush your teeth, etc. You go to work, you eat the meals that keep you going, you do some of the things that you like doing: reading, watching a movie or a show, making phone calls, checking email, but there...

09
Jul
2018

DISTANCE MEANS SO LITTLE WHEN SOMEONE MEANS SO MUCH*

There’s a special feeling to being alone after weeks of being social. I feel like I’ve been on a whirlwind the past two and a half months. A good whirlwind, but a whirlwind nonetheless, what with Karin’s graduation, family visiting, friends visiting, and a seemingly unending round of parties and get-togethers. Now, the house is quiet and empty, and clean, and I am rather enjoying it. It’s funny how you don’t want things to change, and yet they do, and when they do, you can either rail against it or just enjoy the moment. I’ve had so many moments to...

20
May
2018

A NEARLY PERFECT WEEKEND

This weekend delivered all the things that make spring in Sweden unbeatable. Pretty near perfect weather, with high blue skies, warm temps, and cooling, leaf-ruffling breezes scented with lilac. The sun shines until nearly ten, sinking slowly down through a pastel rainbow of lavender, blush and blue. The moon’s a silver sliver; the evening sky speckled with stars. A fat hedgehog trundled past the trellis yesterday evening, while we were watching ice hockey (which we’re doing again tonight, cheering on Sweden in the gold medal game of the World Championships. If they win it will be twice in a row:...

20
Apr
2018

SIMPLE PLEASURES

Today at work, we were entertained for a while…well, entertained isn’t exactly the right word…mesmerized sporadically by the antics of three huge hares that were loping along on the verge outside our office windows. Our building is bounded on the north side by the loop that circles the parking areas and the building itself, a skinny strip of beech hedge, an even skinner strip of grass and then an extremely busy 4-lane road that is the direct access from the highway that goes past Lund. The hares, which were as big as big small dogs; like, bigger than chihuahuas and...

19
Apr
2018

SUDDENLY SUMMER

Suddenly, it’s summer. Weeks of winter teasing, will she won’t she and now BAM, heat wave! Sha na na na na na—we’re surfing on sunshine. Everything has exploded and with it, my head. I went directly from horrible head cold to allergy attack of the ages. Today I thought I’d have to rip my eyes out. Visine and all the other eye drop bottles only hold it temporarily at bay. Nose sprays, allergy meds, COME ON, give me a break. I went from sick misery to allergy misery and honestly I’m not sure which is worse. But the sky is...

10
Apr
2018

SPROING

Suddenly, you see it. The brown is giving way. The green is rising. It’s so subtle as to be hardly noticeable and yet you notice it. You’ve been waiting for it. It’s hard to tell the difference but the difference is there. It’s in the plumping of the grass. It’s in the filling out of trees. It’s in the way the sun shimmers slant from silver to gold. It’s the gradual warming of the earth, the way the spring begins pushing its way into your consciousness before anything can even be seen and suddenly there they are! Sprouts! Stalks! Leaves!...

17
Nov
2017

BEATING THE BLUR

Do you think time seems to go by faster because we stop paying attention to the details? At a certain point, we’ve seen it all before so we don’t have to watch it as it develops, and only need to stop and snap to when something new happens. And after years, nothing new really happens. Unless we really stop. And force ourselves to see the details in the little things, the everyday things that really aren’t the same. It’s not easy, though. I think we lazily allow ourselves too often to coast along, skimming the surface of our lives, until...

May 2024
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