My mind has been operating at Warp Speed today, dealing with what seems like a million items all at once. The orange shirts for tomorrow's traffic direction are finished, a Farmer's Market trip to pick up ingredients for gazpacho was completed earlier today, other errands finished, important emails sent, potatoes and eggs boiled in preparation for making potato salad. Composing an extra blog posting today, knowing how jammed up tomorrow will be, is now in the process of being completed and clean sheets are waiting to be put back on the bed. Next will be more work on preparing the music to hand out to the members of the choir I direct. Now that I have made the decision on which selections to program on the Sundays that we sing, the remaining tasks will be simple and relaxing.
As all of this high degree of accomplishment has been swirling around me, I have been trying to squeeze in everyday mundane tasks, like pick up the clutter on the kitchen counters, entering debit slips into my checking account register, and thinking about getting out to the mailbox.
It is actually the last task I listed that was the most difficult to accomplish. About an hour ago, I finally opened up the front door and stepped out into the muted sunshine and relatively quiet street to go fetch the mail. As is the norm these days, all of the mail was junque mail so I was able to peruse through it quickly and look about at other "things".......namely, my neighbors' yards, which I noticed were looking highly patriotic. As far as I could see, my neighborhood homeowners had placed miniature American flags inside their common areas. Then I looked at our barren place and realized that, in my busyness today, I had forgotten about that which few Americans can "forget" over the next twenty-four hours. 9-11. I scrambled down the steps to our lower level, remembering that I had - tucked away somewhere - small American flags. With little effort, I located them and promptly placed them outside in our common mulched areas.
All these little flags do get the message across. A silent reminder of unity - what our country endured, and the hope that we have in the future of this great nation. May no one or any country - even from within - tarnish, diminish, or destroy the freedom that our forefathers fought for and our brave soldiers continue to uphold.
Stay strong, America.
Ancora imparo
