Steps

Above: "Chatting on the Steps," New York Public Library. LINK here. Photo by xpressbus (xpressbusny@yahoo.com).

My husband, Dan, in yellow, writing by the library steps late last April. Skippy and I drove in with him and are somewhere in the vicinity. :)  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/nyregion/dan-hurley-60-second-novels-covid.html?searchResultPosition=1 Photo by Simbarashe Cha for The New York Times.*

Below, positive steps I took today toward writing my way out of a corner. The first step is getting out of one’s pajamas, made easier today since I slipped in the mud bringing out the compost and my red plaid flannel PJs took the fall. Maybe we mince our steps, or drag them. Maybe we shuffle, but at least we are moving in a direction, covering ground.

1. Ate healthfully.

2. Showered with my friend Aveeno.

3. Filled in brows with brow pencil (a Christmas gift from Skipper, who knew just the right color); combed on mascara.

4.  Slipped into my lavender wool coat, knotted my Burberry scarf at my neck and walked around the block at about 4:30 p.m. I stopped to gaze at the brook on Patton Place--the way the water moves over the rocks, and follows a course..On the way back, I saw a family of kids I like--playing ice hockey on their icy black-top driveway. I walked over to the gate and said hello.

5. Showed up at desk.

6. Made blue cornmeal grits to add a little comfort and zing to dinner, tho Dan would not touch with a 10-foot pole and Skip was at her friend’s.

7. Went on virtual support group (Zoom). #luckyseven

Good night.

P.S. I’m rereading this Wednesday morning. The phone conversation with Figgy from her perch in Florida. How could I forget to list that? That was a big step. We talked for a long time and arrived at some important places. That is not small potatoes.

*That is my Dan’s Superman persona, if you will. Or is Clark Kent? It’s not the way I see and love him in our  life--in plaid shirts and blue Levi’s, clipping NY Times stories he knows I will love. Also, he has a beard in this photo (not now).