All Things to All People

Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.
-Colleen C. Barrett

I work from home in an office environment where the phone rings constantly, and where Al Gore would surely pitch a fit at the small forest under which my desk is buried. My days consist of repetitive tasks and many unhappy people, so some days it’s tempting to let the negativity and monotony drag me down. Today was one of those days.

Around noon I found myself staring out the window directly behind my monitor and ignoring the ringing phone. I could feel the tug as a gloomy melancholy tried to snake around me and pull me down into some dark place and have its way with me. I was tired, and it was enticing to just give in. It was at that moment my little dog waddled into my line of sight and plopped her little butt in a patch of sunshine on the sidewalk.  She closed her eyes and raised her head towards the light, soaking it in as if fueled by the stuff… and I couldn’t help but smile.

My Gilly, short for Ghirardelli, is almost six years old, and her favorite things in the world are sunshine, me and food (in that order). If she can have one of those things at any one time, life is fantastic! Given two or (God help us) all three at once, she’s nearly apoplectic. I envied her so much at that moment, so happy with just a few rays of sunshine on her face, but then I thought, “Why shouldn’t she be happy with just that? Isn’t sunshine the whole reason you moved south in the first place?” And in fact it was.

Growing up in the frozen tundra that is northern Michigan, my fondest dream was to move south. It didn’t matter where, as long as it never snowed, and the sun shone all year long. (At 8 years old this seemed like such a fantasy, but then I realized there are places where this actually happens!)  So why shouldn’t a bit of sun on my face make me just as happy as it was making Gilly right that minute? So I left the phone in the house and took my tea with me out to the back yard for a good fifteen minutes. I called Gilly over, and we lay swinging quietly together in the hammock, eyes closed, soaking in the sun and sounds around us. It was the best fifteen minutes of the past two weeks, and I plan to revisit it again tomorrow, because I can.

I hope each of you can take time out today to go sit outside, away from the computers and phones, TVs and radios, and listen for awhile to the world. It’s an amazing place.