movies, books, and bugs

Happy Saturday! Saturdays are special. No doubt about it. Today, I slept in till 8:45. Decadent. Don't know how that happened, but it was heavenly. Usually, QG and I call Saturday super-fun day. Actually, I call it that. QG just nods. It's our day to hang out, to go to the special gym with the pool so we can swim, to go out to eat, to putz around the yard, to watch a movie, or to do whatever strikes our fancy, like visiting a museum. It is nice to carve out a day each week to just enjoy being. That's something I learned from the accident.

This morning, after a cup of stout coffee, I went to a local park to look for bugs.

I found a couple. Plus some trees. It's funny. I was looking for the amazing dragonfly I saw there once. I have not seen him since. He was huge. He was the star of my blog for a day.

Anyhow, I always look for him. I miss him. Then, I thought: this is silly, I am missing out on enjoying what is here by busying my mind with the stress of missing Mister dragonfly. He was cool, and if I ever see him again, all the better, but I need to let him go.

I need to concentrate fully on what the park has to offer today. I need to be open. To look and to listen with all of my attention. Then I saw the cicada. Then I saw the fascinating tree stump, and the barbed wire.

How like life. If we pine for what we had, we miss what we have. Life rolls along like a flood in a gully, and we have to look forward.

We have to enjoy each twist and turn. If we want to fully live, that is. And I do.

Last few things: Books and movies. I'm trying to make more time to read, to squeeze books into idle seconds, and waiting time, and lunch time, and bed time. Two recommendations: The Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson and A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver. The Kashgar book is the author's first novel. It has two parallel stories; one past, one present, which are on a collision course to meet at destiny's intersection. It features several distinct, well-drawn characters, and an owl. I am not done, not quite to the intersection point yet, but I have my suspicions. If you like people and adventures, this is a book for you. The poetry book is worth reading if only for the breathless elegance of the words. Though this book is not poetry, only about poetry, it flows as effortlessly and tightly as any good poem and any good book should.

I saw Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, and Your Sister's Sister lately. Seeking a friend was good. It was quirky and surprising. Gotta love that. As far as the sister's one...eeeh. It might be worth seeing for free, but I wouldn't recommend spending money on it. Not that I hated it: it was okay. My expectations were too high, as I love Emily Blunt, and hoped it would be as good as The Sunshine Cleaning Company. It was not, but Emily, I still believe in you!