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| Marco Polo according to Geico |
But will it work in the supermarket? You'd be surprised.
I celebrated a milestone birthday a while back. No, it's none of your bee's wax, but anything to keep the birthday candle companies in business, and the people who love you always have a tough time coming up with a birthday gift when, after so many years, you have virtually everything you ever need.
"How about a pair of funny socks... a pen, a cup, a book, a money clip, all with special messages? Bought him all those last year, etc. But what will we get him this milestone birthday?"
Confession: All my loving children and grandchildren 'hit it out of the park' because I LOVE all that and the special thoughts that go with them. I am so blessed. But a few months back, daughter Jill and family took a new, sweet tack. She/they sent me a love note (before the lockdown, so adjust accordingly):
"Hi Pop! Happy Birthday! Time is an illusion. Illusion's are beautiful! You are beautiful! here is a list of (secret number) things you can do for yourself this special year and forever."
- Take one full breath every time you put your keys in the car ignition.
- Go to a lecture, presentation,TedTalk, as you find them.
- Tell the sun thank you.
- Have a really long conversation with one of your dogs wen no one else is around.
- Smell the flowers, anywhere.
- Yell "Marco" in a grocery store and wait for a return, "Polo."
- Go for a walk in the rain. You could even wear boots and step in all the puddles.
- Next time you see a really, really fancy car and strangers are taking pictures of it, walk up to the driver's side door, go for the handle (but don't touch because you might set off an alarm) glare at the people staring... then tell them "Just kidding."
- Go on a picnic. If you have one of those baskets with a place for wind and plastic wine glasses, good on you.
- Honk a code in a parking garage that demands other cars to answer. You know, "beep beep beep beep beep."... "Beep beep."
- Wear a cologne you used to wear.
- Put something off for good. Imagine 'garage sale,' then forget it.
- On a walk, wave to every car that passes.
- Tell someone that you love their glasses... or shoes. You get the idea.
- Get rid of a kitchen tool that is irritating, like a knife that doesn't cut well. Buy a new thing that is super high quality. Appreciate it every day.
- Greet every stranger whose path you cross with an acknowledging nod and smile.
- Send a piece of writing to one of your favorite magazines, something crappy at first maybe, just to get the hang of it, then start working on something really good.
- Make a Bolognese sauce and fancy yourself the most romantic creature on the earth. Smell the sauce as you cook.
- While you are at it, kiss your wife like that... romantic.
- Meditate for 10 minutes, 3 days in a row and then go outside and pick the first flower you can find and pretend like you just went to Woodstock and it was amazing.
- Tell a funny personal story you can share with someone one you have just met, like a waiter or someone changing your oil.
- Find awe in every sunset, blessed at every sunrise.
- Have tea and crumpets, whatever those are.
- Get a fancy bar of chocolate for dessert one night. It should be expensive. Eat it slowly with red wine or coffee.
- Be on the alert for any small and inexpensive, but meaningful gift for your love and/or anyone else you know it would mean something.
- Live fully
- Love desperately.
Oh, there are more... one for each of my years in fact, but those are preciously for my eyes only, filled with meaning. But the reality is that life always moves forward, not backward and those are the days and years that we have left to live fully and love desperately. Time's a wastin'!
Would you like to read more beautiful prose? This is daughter Jill's website. She is an incredible writer with her own sense of life and living that has few equals.
Her beautiful website and welcome: https://www.tangledbeings.com
Hello, my dears!
I am Jill Constantino, a writer, a flower farmer, an anthropologist, a teacher, a mother. My family and I live on a small farm outside of a small town. We moved away from big jobs toward dreams that are as inspiring as they are elusive. We seek full lives with peaceful perfection, poetic love, and ferocious world-bettering engagement. But hawks eat chickens, plants smother plants, love becomes distracted and confused, and children grow up and away. I reluctantly embrace the sadness as I somewhat desperately hold onto the joy.
I fret about time, the passage of which I know I am failing to fully appreciate, and the abrupt cruelty of mortality, the end of that time which will come faster than I can possibly imagine. Yet, I have so many stories of beautiful beings--botanical, animal, human, creatures that have become mine. I have cradled them protectively in my head for a while and now, I release them to you, in hopes that they carry us into the future.
Contact me:
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