The Pillow Book of Prudence . . .
Things to think about:
How quickly the body loses its fitness and how relevant is the old saying ‘Use it or lose it’. 
How my old dog asks for so little in life . . . food at regular intervals, a comfy bed, a walk once a day and the need to know exactly where I am at any given time. How incredible it is that newborn lambs can survive rain, a southerly change and then frost and temps of zero degrees. 
How valuable is friendship. How maybe the story isn’t too bad . . . that it could entice readers. That winter is over and we are launched into the heady scents of Spring. How all sensations of any sort, good or bad, are impermanent. Life is short and worth the effort.
Things not to think about:
Pain. Loss. Bitterness. Toxicity in humans. I could go on and on. But I’d prefer not to think about it.
On this second week of the ninth month, as our country finally moves forward with a government after two weeks of uncertainty following the national elections, I look at what I have written above. And how short the Things Not To Think About are. But life is short and if we have to waste it thinking on the negative people and things in our lives, what a waste! In every day, there is something to be thankful for . . . even the most infinitesimal thing.
Take today for example which was a day of physio, where there was pushing and pulling. Subsequently things were accomplished which hadn’t done for some time. The result was pain and a retreat to the couch with a hot water bottle. If one hadn’t put one’s feet up, the WIP wouldn’t have been read with new eyes. A wonderful email from a friend in Vienna may not have given enormous food for thought. The pain wouldn’t have gone. It was indeed . . . an impermanent condition.
On this second day of the second week, I am reminded that it is a time of rebirth, that the seasons pass in a cycle and that whilst others continue to wear black, I am wearing a cardigan in a shade of palest nude-pink, the colour of a petal of blossom when one holds it up to the sunlight. It is my way of saying goodbye to winter and welcoming the balm of spring. And a lot less depressing than wearing black.
Wonderful reminders–to think about the good things instead of focusing on the bad. The bad will always be there, but what’s the point in dwelling on it when there is spring coming and new lambkins and dogs who’d like a nice walk?
That palest pink, drop of color added to white, is one of my favorites–it’s the color of the wild roses that bloom in June here.
So true, Rowenna, so true. And I love that nude colour, paradoxically and especially when it’s laid over black!
As always, the pillowbook makes me think. And smile. And thankful.
SJAT, you only have to look at Boop to think, smile and be thankful!