Chasing Down The Muse: Rainy days and Mondays — but not blue

Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.

—William Wordsworth

*

Monday dawns crystal clear, with long, clear views out to Catalina. It’s enough to make one want to run and play — frolic, even. This certainly seems to fit the season.

The rain of the past weekend of course has its place and it brings out a wide variety of feelings in most of us. Rainy days to me have long been days to stick close to home. While I love a brisk walk in the rain along a sandy stretch of beach, eventually the cozy warmth of home beckons. A hot shower. A book. A fire. A project too long ignored. Any of these things are wonderful indoor time fillers. Coupled with the smell of warming soup or baking bread and, well, you get the picture.

Then comes Monday. Run and play. Frolic. Get ready for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and a weekend of Winter Fantasy at the Sawdust Festival. A full week of activities stretches out ahead of me as I walk down to our local Curves for an exercise boost. I love that I can see the blues of the ocean and the sky from their upper story windows as I exercise.

Sadly, however, this is the last week for exercising at our local Curves. It is closing after several years here. When I started there a couple of months ago, I did not think I would like it and didn’t think it could possibly be challenging enough. That has not turned out to be the case and in the short time I have been there, I have become quite attached.

Curves has been a bit of a return to the past as I have encountered teachers and parents from my children’s school days at Top of the World, former aerobic dancing students, and new faces to go with names long known. Curves has had a social context I had not anticipated at all. It will be missed.

Still, life is rich and full and something else will arise to fill the gap created, I am sure. Meanwhile, there is much to be done. There are pies to bake and art to make and Sawdust Studio Art Classes to fill and lots more. Grandchildren to hug and mothers to call and a drive to Hollywood for the Thanksgiving repast. Myriad joys fill the hours. Frolic and play just seems to continue to show up as I move toward the weekend.

Blustery winds bring clear skies and then clouds again. We have weather! While at times this may annoy, in the long run it stimulates and enhances. Those long views out to Catalina are all the proof I need. Emerson was so right when he said the “sky is the daily bread of the eyes.” I am feasting on this daily bread. And I am thankful.

I hope all of you have a joy-filled Thanksgiving weekend. Don’t forget, of course, to be thankful for whatever comes. The joys fill us up; the trials make us stronger; and the sorrows, well, they do eventually become easier to bear as we focus ahead. We learn from nature, as the skies empty and fill, thus is life changeable, too.

Joy is sustaining — feast on it!

Cherril Doty is an artist, writer, counselor…always fascinated, inspired, and titillated by the myriad mysteries of life. She can be reached at [email protected] or by phone at (714) 745-9973.