I Am Hot (By Danielle)

I am hot. Too hot and remarkably grouchy. I yelled at a lifeguard who wasn’t doing his job. (Really? Listening to the radio and turning to watch the traffic rather than the pool?) I am losing patience with people I love and am worried about all the wrong things. I can’t stand that I do not know what to do about the forest fires, disastrous floods, and people in the world who don’t have food or clean water. Did I mention wars? But what is really making me nasty is knowing I have a choice. I can turn off the news, stay inside my air- conditioned home, go to the store or the market for fresh food. I can talk and walk with wonderful wise women who have calming things to say, and I can watch birds. I saw FIVE great blue herons in the lower pond in High Park this morning. And an egret. Were they all there because the smoke in the air grounded them? So here is my choice again. I can revel in seeing those wonderful birds or I can focus on the conditions that might have brought them. I think that nowadays, I need to find a way to do both. So please forgive me if I seem distracted. I am trying to find some kind of balance that is less ephemeral than birds. As Emily Dickinson said, “Hope is the thing with feathers.”