The text came from a friend.
She wanted to tell me that the father of a dear friend had died.
I knew that his death will be hard for her.
I know how much she loved her daddy.

I know this friend from high school.
I remember her so well.
I remember the struggles we both had trying to make sense of a new math curriculum.
I remember her tender heart.

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I went back to the store because I could not get the item out of my mind.
I had seen it days before but did not buy it at the time.
I have enough country accessories, I told myself.
Another voice insisted, you can never have enough country accessories.

I thought of the old cartoon where an angel was on one shoulder and a devil was on the other.
Usually the two would be whispering in the person’s ear.
Do it.
Don’t do it.

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I had the privilege of making a meal for a young mom.
She just had her second child.
She now has two little boys to love.
I could not wait to meet her new son.

I prepared the meal in the morning.
I sent her a text to set up a time for me to deliver the meal.
I put everything on a tray and grabbed the present I had for her new baby.
There was one more important thing that needed to be included.

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Before my daughter’s baby shower five months ago, I made a playlist of songs.
I appropriately called it the Baby Playlist.
The title was not very original.
However, the name makes the playlist easy to find.

The playlist consisted of all genres of songs.
The playlist was quiet and peaceful as it played in the background.
Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
I have found myself listening to that playlist since my granddaughter was born.

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It was an Instagram post.
It was a picture of a peaceful place.
Boats were on the water.
The setting was so lovely.

The person who posted admitted that she is “off the grid.”
There were brief times of connecting again.
For the most part, she was experiencing quiet, and stillness, and rest.
I read her list of things that she is doing while she is away.

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The sounds of summer.
Children laughing.
Water splashing.
Music playing.

There are other sounds of summer.
Mowers mowing.
Weed whackers buzzing.
Leaf blowers whirring.

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Did you ever think about your pet peeves?
Those little things that annoy you, whether legitimate or not.
Those things that just seem to bother you.
Those pet peeves are different for each person.

I do not like dishes left in the sink.
If a person can bring their dishes from the table to the counter, they can do the next thing.
It is simply one more step to bend down and put the dishes in the dishwasher.
My children knew that was expected of them as they cleared the table.

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If someone eavesdrops on your conversation, you would be a bit annoyed.
Some things are meant only for the ears of the person in front of you.
Sometimes, eavesdropping cannot be helped.
Sitting on a bus or a train, it is inevitable that you will hear other conversations.

You hear someone’s conversation, albeit unwillingly, if they are talking loudly on their phone.
We have all had the experience of needing something right where the person is standing.
This has happened more times than I can count when I am in the grocery store.
The person looks annoyed when you kindly ask them to move.

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Perhaps it is predictability.
Perhaps it is simply being on the same schedule.
There are certain things I can count on each morning.
There are certain people I expect to see.

Even though I am walking and they are driving, we see each other.
It is getting to the point that we can count on seeing each other.
I can guess what time it is by the people that drive by me.
We are part of each other’s morning routines.

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I found myself thinking about my mother the other day.
It was a bird that brought back the memories.
It was a bird that was happily taking a bath in a small amount of water.
A small mount of water is all the tiny bird seemed to need.

I remember how much my mother wanted a birdbath in our back yard.
It was the days of hanging laundry on clotheslines.
It was the days of long poles that lifted the clothesline high in the air.
It was the days of clothespin bags that moved along the clothesline with you.

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