Zinnias vs. Regular life


 
It is amazing how quickly our moments of wonder, enjoyment, connection, and love fade.
Yesterday, I was eating a truly delightful honeycrisp apple. The red surface, I noticed, was far from monochromatic – on it were a multitude of tiny, but exceedingly green dots. It was impossibly beautiful how the green and red mixed in these small places.
​​A moment, noticing the glory of nature, the wonder around and within me.
But that subtle, wonderful, magical, moment of majesty disappeared. Quickly. Without trace.
It wasn’t until later, when writing in my evening journal and answering a prompt about the best part of my day that I remembered it at all.
What will be the best part of your day? What will be the part of the day you will most remember?
I wonder why does the good leave so quickly while annoyances seem to linger?
A discussion with my friend Jill and her similar experience with zinnias spawned the meme: Why must the memory of zinnias enjoyed earlier fade so quickly?
Hold on to those beautiful, but fleeting moments.
Do whatever necessary to help you accentuate and remember whatever positive you can.
Collect them in your day as though your life depended on it.
Indeed, your life depends it.
 

The Delay

2026 issue #03 — The Delay I’m in my buddy David’s car. He’s driving me from my mom’s apartment in NYC to Newark, NJ, where I’m going to catch a plane back home to Portland. David and I have been friends for fifty years. Amazing. My phone dings. I look at it. Nothing important. Just an alert from United. *

Read More »

Lifeboats. Summer. Bridges. Helpers.

Lifeboats. Summer. Bridges. Helpers. The rapid succession of a toddler-drunk-on-power messes is overwhelming. I’m exhausted by the sheer number of (what seem to me) reprehensible acts. My country is sickening me. federal agents shooting at (and killing) civilians actions against immigrants, federal workers, the environment, reproductive rights invading a sovereign nation and abducting its leader pardoning people who committed reprehensible

Read More »

A Friday Night Tradition

Religiously. Every Friday night, religiously, I do a particular tradition. I do the same ritual religiously every Friday night. I’m not misusing the word religiously to mean fanatically, as in the improper use of it in the sentence: She exercises religiously. I use the word religiously as it should be used—with more positive connotations—as in calmly, forgivingly, without rushing. So,

Read More »