Do you ever feel like the speed of life is just a passing blur, and you’re still sitting on the hall bench where everybody and everything left you? I don’t, often, but when the schedule and events get just a hair crazier than usual, it can happen. When I was in my spouse’s school office yesterday, filing last semester’s leftovers and collecting the recycling and tidying up the various heaps and stacks no longer in use, I went to take the recycling basket down the hall and saw a lone object propped up on the bench near his door, unclaimed and not in the hands of whoever brought it there anymore.
Well, of course. I can’t say whether the person who’d been reading it was actually raptured away or some happy prankster just had a moment of hipster meta-irony, but either way, I felt a certain kinship with the piece of flotsam lying there thus disconnected, for just a second. Then, naturally, I collected my thoughts and the escaped, trailing pieces of recyclable paperwork, hitched up my pants, and went along my way to finish the task, and that was that. Life goes on, yes, but mostly (when it matters) I just catch my breath and catch up with it again. It may not be as drama-filled as being raptured off to heaven, but it’s good enough for me.
Art-Colored Glasses 
Life gets ahead of me frequently, but I usually catch up. In any event, I’d rather stroll towards the end rather than be ruptured off. 🙂
Nothing beats a nice meander! 🙂
Hey ya, in recognition of your good write ups, i have just nominated you for a Sunshine Blogger Awards, look it up here please https://pintowski.wordpress.com/
Thank you.
Nonso
So sweet and generous of you! I’ve stopped accepting awards simply because of the tremendous time and effort involved in true participation in that process, but I am honored you thought of me along with the others you’ve recognized. You are, truly, a ray of sunshine!
Yours,
Kathryn
Hey Kathryn,
Thank you for your kind words…
Trust you are doing good. Happy New Year dear.
Nonso.
Speaking of apocalyptic tales, episodes for “The Leftovers” were filmed in Austin and vicinity last year. I learned about it when I was out taking pictures one day and found that an area where I’d photographed in previous years had been fenced off and made into a temporary movie set:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2015-10-02/hbos-the-leftovers-finds-new-life-in-austin/
Hope they got a goodly bunch of wildflower seeds well scattered in the soil during their work! I hadn’t heard of the series but, admittedly, got my interest piqued a bit by the article. We gave up our cable subscription and just watch streamed stuff on Netflix and Hulu and Amazon, but it seems as though everything eventually ends up streamed, if we’re patient, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for it.
Sounds like the producers of The Leftovers recognize that some version of the apocalypse doesn’t necessarily wait to apply to *everyone’s* actual End Time but can happen in the middle of all sorts of lives. I tend to subscribe to a similar theory myself: all I have to do is pay attention to the news for a little while, and I see evidence of human implosion everywhere. (Another reason to turn off the TV more often, said the ostrich!) 😉 Good time to be a wildflower seed, eh!
I admire the visual wit of the person who left this book behind.
Precisely. Wasn’t *you*, was it? 😉
I’ve been counting the days on the calendar, because my sister (from Tennessee) is coming for another week-long visit. I can barely wait until she gets here this evening! But oddly enough, I realized that the first 19 days of January sort of flew by unnoticed, (for the most part), because I’ve been so focused on her arrival date. In a way, it feels like I left behind the important task of paying attention to all the little gifts that each day brings. It’s always good to anticipate fun things on the horizon, but I’ll take your blog post as a reminder that I should also remember to appreciate (and notice) what’s happening RIGHT NOW.
Very clever use of the abandoned book (searching for a new owner?) as a visual metaphor. 🙂
The only thing that would have been snappier than someone leaving the book in the hall might’ve been if I’d spotted it on a table of remaindered books, eh!
I know what you mean about anticipatory living, but isn’t that a good thing, too? I’m looking forward equally eagerly to a visit from one of *my* sisters this spring, and in some ways I find it gives a special tinge of happiness to the present day just knowing that that pleasure lies not so far ahead. If I’m pulling my head out of the clouds reasonably often to get additional good out of today, whether it’s merely accomplishing some of the always-long list of To Do items or it’s having a swell adventure of any grander sort, that ends up feeling like a bonus to me.
As it always does, the appearance of a note from you brings a great deal of that particular kind of gleam to the day.
(((HUGS!)))
Kath