Stuff

I was driving home from work today, thinking about all the 'stuff' I needed to deal with once I got home. You all know how it is, there is an endless list of fixing dinner, walking the dog, doing laundry, running the vacuum and so on. Then I realized that I've been letting 'stuff' get in the way of my life. Here I was trying to rebuild a life that had been torn down in the previous year and instead of taking the opportunity to define my life in a way that made me happier, I was falling back into the trappings that had defined my previous life. So instead of spending the evening fixing a big meal, I broiled some fish and threw together some hush puppies and called it dinner. Instead of throwing a load of laundry in the washer and then mopping my kitchen floor, I went for a walk on the beach.

And what a walk it was. The setting sun was an amazing shade of peachy pink. Families walked in little clumps; content singles walked their dogs; dear friends walked together with their heads close together intent on their conversation. I walked by myself, stopping to pet the occasional beach puppy and greeted those whom I walked by with a 'hello.' I ran into a dear friend who had just come out from the ocean after a swim and chatted with one of my students that happened to be skimboarding on the water's edge. This is life.