How Are We Doing?

Current Status... It's hard to get a solid grip on how I feel about the new administration. There's no doubt in my mind that Michelle Obama is doing a great job. She's role modeling healthy living and family values like crazy. What's not to like about her? She's funny and she takes no back seat to her presidential hubby. Mr. O., I think, is still finding his footing. There was a part of his campaign where he seemed to tire of all the insanity and withdraw from it. And Maureen Dowd sermonized in her column that he should gather himself and come out fighting, be tougher. And he did. Now he needs to do that again. Be a little tougher and get the American people more involved in their own salvation.

Lately I'm thinking... that, well, nothing lasts forever. I try to understand that this also means that new doors open. But how comfortable it is to put your eggs in one basket, settle into some lifestyle you think will last forever. Real openness to change is hard, but probably a much better survival strategy.

This is really interesting... We hadn't been out to eat more than once this year till last night. Because of Restaurant Week, we got to go somewhere really nice for a fixed price. It felt great to treat ourselves, and I thought of it as a belated birthday dinner. Arugula salad, duckling and carrot cake. A nice glass of Pinot Noir. These mini-vacations are a real treat. Something to look forward to after working so hard to "stay in the game," keep the money coming in.

Currently watching... little red buds on the tips of the maple branches. Brown nodes on the forsythia that will turn to bright yellow blooms. The white snowdrops still quietly blooming. The crocus, only yellow this year, but cheery. And indoors, my cyclamen outrageously pink and lush. The wintering-over geraniums have been blooming red and white all winter and are eager to get back outside. Sara, an outdoor cat for four years, is having to adapt to the indoor life, but she's like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. She tries again and again to get out. The warmer the day, the more she plots her escape.

The Soapbox: Now that the Equinox has arrived, the days are longer than the nights. It's easier to be hopeful than in the dark chill of winter. Just beneath the crust, we are eager to push off the soil that's buried us and poke our heads out into a new cycle of growth. This energy cannot be denied. We will begin to grow again, and soon.

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