Things making me smile recently include…
The Lake. The lake, forever the lake.
Also.
An outing to the market, and an older fellow who I point at to draw his attention to the fact that we both are wearing plaid “shackets”, smiles and throws obscure accented phrases back at me. Twenty minutes later I see him again, walking the other way, and we both laugh and toss a few more cryptic phrases at each other – misunderstanding each other in words, but smiling all the way.
Lunch with a friend and she shows me her latest painting. The vibrant spirit of it. In a series of texts with another friend she sends me pix of various lanterns and light makers she’s been working on. The joy of sharing creative projects with friends who get it, friends who listen and remember, friends who say things that hit you sideways and help you think.
Still and again, in the middle of the day, this wholly absolutely irresistible tune –
The deep but quiet private joy, that for a few weeks now there’s been time to sketch on a daily basis, and the pleasure of surrendering to it, the daily question of what next, and of drawing and drawing and drawing…
Good drawings, bad drawings, whatever. Just drawing drawing drawing.
Hours spent at the little red kidney table by the windows, and for a moment around dusk, I look out at the sky beyond my table and whaddya know.
Circling.
A hawk.
The effortless soar. So high it’s hard to tell if it’s above the Gardiner or maybe floating above the park along Esplanade.
The joy of birds, of flight.
Earlier in the week, out by the water, by the sugar dock. Seagulls everywhere, thrilling to the scent of sugar in the air as a ship unloads.
Simple pleasures.
And then, in the midst of everything, absolutely every friggin thing going down in the strange strange world that is our modern existence, there is this hilarious yet deadly serious quote rediscovered:
Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts.
~ Wendell Berry
Lens Artists – This Made me Smile
follow your nose 