Nose to Tail Friday Round-Up

The dogs are lying nose to tail with an occasional cat walking by so all is well here. What I have learned after these many years of having dogs and cats is that the vast majority are peace-loving and nonviolent. They just want to know where they’re supposed to fit in and once they do, they relax into that place. People will do this, too, but it takes much longer and usually involves some measure of difficulty and heartache.

A dove swooped down to land on top of the bird feeder this morning, its big flapping wings startling all the other birds so she ended up alone on her perch. How often has someone’s flamboyant entrance made everyone else want to get up and leave? We watch all this from the back porch where we drink endless cups of coffee in the morning and watch the dogs sniff about and find their place in the grass.

In line dancing class, I am taking two steps forward and three steps back (so to speak). But, that’s okay, because it’s good to do something one is not very good at, and to be flummoxed and embarrassed and full of jokes, and not stop everything and say, “Hey, I’m good at a lot of other things!” This takes some discipline for a person who wears her resume on her sleeve a lot of the time. My line dancing friend and I idolize our teacher. I even bought a sparkling pair of white sneakers just like hers but I haven’t worn them yet. They would only bring more attention to my feet.

Compassion as an action is gritty and difficult and rare.. A writing colleague described how she had recently volunteered to help clean a neighbor’s house that had been the site of terrible, lethal violence. She had the choice to empathize, raise money, bring food, rail against violence, but she chose to go there. Because of something that happened a long time ago in my own life, I have a sense of what entering that house must have been like. I only know secondhand because, I didn’t have the depth of compassion to go there myself, not then anyway, maybe not ever. So, I am very much in awe of this person. She has set me to thinking.

I am making fifty grilled cheese sandwiches for Street Angels on Sunday. Because I’ve done this before, I know this one surprising fact: it is possible to put too much cheese in a grilled cheese sandwich. I learned the gloppy, messy hard way to use some restraint. Also, I am investigating cooking them on a sheet pan in the oven versus frying in a pan. Making sandwiches is my version of active compassion. You can see I have a ways to go.