Accompany
Today was not a good day.
I wasn’t exactly sure where I wanted to go with today’s theme. I had two knee jerk concepts—a photo of Paul on piano and Anna on clarinet working through the music we hope to prepare for Xmas Eve and a photo of Anna and I as I accompanied her to dance class.
Mid afternoon, I took a quick break from what I was doing at work and saw that near variations on these themes had already been taken. So much for originality.
As I was packing up to leave work at 3:00, I was informed that before leaving, I needed to throw together a summary of all the code changes I have made over the last 3-4 weeks. Two hours later, I was packing up to leave for real—so much for taking Anna to dance. Because I left late and because it’s Thursday and because pre-holiday traffic is always a bit heavier, my commute home took two and a half hours—so much for getting the piano/clarinet photo.
The day was getting worse. I was getting grumpier and grumpier. I just wanted to scream!
And then, I simply wanted to curl up on the couch and let the cat(s) crawl up on my chest.
And then…
I knew my photo for the day. Our pets accompany us through life completely unconditionally. The bond is so deep that even though it has been years since Ricky (our first cat) passed at the ripe old age of 19, his memory continues to accompany us. Sitting under some low hanging branches of a bush in our garden, “sleeps” this makeshift memorial for him.
And then reflecting on how this all came together, I was struck by the total “Advent-ness” of it. We hope and plan for one outcome, only to be blindsided by something better.
Today was an ok day, after all.