Five Weeds in the Yard Friday Round-Up

It’s been a packed, packed week. From a lawn growing furiously with all the rain we’ve had, I picked these five weeds to consider.

When a person needs help and you are ready to help them, you have to let them decide how that will work. Being the receiver of help can feel new and uncomfortable despite all the things the helper does to make helping seem ordinary and no bother. Even if you are driving them to an appointment, you have to let them drive, if you get my drift.

After a while, if you are steady, a good listener, and non-judgmental, your hairdresser will tell you things that will curl your hair. And when that happens, it means they trust you, even if you’re separated by thirty or forty years of age and live wildly different lives.

Your kids and grandkids remember miniscule things about you and your house that you’ve forgotten. And those things take on meaning you never planned. For instance, our 19-year-old grandson who spent a lot of time here as a very young kid came walking out of the kitchen the other night holding a rarely used plate from the high shelf. “I remember this plate,” he said, like it was beloved in some way and held memories of things I’d forgotten a long time ago. We don’t all see plates the same way.

We got Swirl’s ashes in a beautiful box that cannot be opened without a screwdriver. We didn’t intend this but it’s inadvertently what we asked for. So he is resting now on top of the credenza in the living room. I’m not comfortable with this. I debated putting the box on the floor next to my bed, but that seemed sick and Grey Gardens-ish so he remains (so to speak) hidden behind a print of (how appropriate) a sled dog team in Alaska.

There’s nothing that says hope for the future than being 75 and accepting a five-year appointment to the governing body of a city’s public housing authority. This is exactly what my husband did today. Not only is this a big deal appointment but our housing authority, sadly, has been in very hot water so long that the bottom of the pot is scorched. One person sent ‘congratulations and condolences.’ I just took pictures and stood around being gushy and proud. Old man is surely in for it but he seems very happy.

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Photo by Semyon Borisov on Unsplash