BLESSING

This morning as I was doing my morning chores, hygiene, clothes, winding my watch, coffee, it occurred to me that I had no direct contact yesterday with another person. I can’t be certain but odds are that over the day and night, I never said a word out loud. I am not bemoaning a case of the lonesome blues. Solitude is a blessing if you believe in blessings. I did text message my son a photo and did text two of my favorite women, one with a ‘Good Morning’ and the other with a ‘Goodnight’. I got warm replies from the ladies which was indirect but affection in any form is worth the wait. 

Yesterday was a damp, cold day with no reason to go out into the post-Christmas decompression. Working in my wood shop has been a blessing: I need a better word. ‘Blessing’ is back loaded with Holy-Moly hyperbole that I don’t embrace. Believers qualify blessings by the source rather than the blessing itself.  ‘Good Fortune’ is blessing enough but the word lacks something. On a word search I came up with ‘Favored’ and ‘Lucky’ but either way, when something good happens that I didn’t earn, maybe don’t deserve I feel blessed. Blessings can come from anywhere, precipitate out of thin air like fog on the glass. I can give my own, personal blessing; ‘Bless You’! You have been blessed. There is no cheque in the mail nor will I be dropping off a fruit cake for your delight. Still, when I have the chance I’ll be a good listener and a willing accomplice. it may be a thin, short lived blessing but a blessing no less. 

In my wood shop, since I’ve reorganized and added some new tools, even house keeping leaves me feeling blessed. I can work for an hour, maybe and hour and a half, then I have to go do something else. Yesterday was a four-session day in the shop. When you are waiting for glue to dry, four rounds in the basement take all day. Today will find me there but I will go out. It’s not that I need the human interaction but I actually do have things to do. It’s getting light outside, my new coffee maker is out of brew and I have a list. I never used to make lists but that was when memory was a pup.  I have an easy-erase white board on the kitchen door and it’s organized into columns and numbered with things-to-remember. All in all, I’m feeling both enriched and endowed and if that ain’t blessed it’s close enough. In my lexicon the words ‘bless’ and ‘curse’ are antonyms of each other and to be cursed does not require a pious caveat. If, in certain contexts ’Good’ and ‘Bad’ can switch identities, then a ‘Blessing’ can be secular and I can be blessed with blessings whenever it suits me. Actually, after all my word play, leave out the Holy-Moly and I think blessings are good Karma coming back around. When you get down to it Karma is like God, a metaphor to which we attribute things we can't deny but don't understand.