The seeds of this column came from my Life 101 blog entry on March 7, 2017.
The sky was ash gray when I left for work this morning. On the way to my office, I flipped on my wipers. There was just a smattering of rain at first. The lack of moisture made my new blades squawk against the windshield. But that soon changed. By the time I pulled into the parking space about 7:30, the blades were sweeping gallons of water off the glass.
Standing at my office window, I twisted the clear acrylic rod hanging from the top of the window. Opening the blinds a little more gave me a better view of the courtyard from my desk.
A student scurried from the admin building under an umbrella. A gust of wind whipped out of the south. I thought it might be a Mary Poppins moment, but she leaned into the wind and ran for the cover of the portico. It rained all day.
There was no chance for a good photograph for the blog I write each night, so as I often do, I went to the archives.
I came across a picture of me in front of an Orvis store. Orvis is a high-end store that sells fly fishing gear and apparel, among other things. I had a big goofy smile on my face, and I was wearing a new hat. For the life of me, I could not remember where we were when Jilda took the photo. When I looked at the metadata (an electronic timestamp), the date read October 22, 2011. I still ha no idea.
On a whim, I looked back through my blog posts from October 2011. I saw that we were in Apex, North Carolina on that date. I remembered that we had driven there so that Jilda could attend a yoga training. Yoga Warrior training helps yoga instructors understand how to deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This condition sometimes occurs after traumatic life events like war, disasters or extreme emotional episodes.
After classes one day, we drove around exploring. When I saw the Orvis store, we had to go in. Inside, I sipped hot apple cider as I browsed box after box of exotic flies with names like Pheasant Tail Nymphs, Muddler Minnows and Zebra Midges. I had to fight the impulse to give them my American Express Card in exchange for everything in the fly fishing session. As I read back through my blog post and journal from that day, I could almost smell the rustic cedar beams.
People often ask me if I get paid to blog every day. I tell them I that I write each day because it helps me on my path to becoming a better writer. The questioner usually shakes their head as if I had an incurable disease.
But another benefit of writing each day is that it provides a historical record. Life is often mundane at times, and it goes by fast. We do not always do things that will make the world a better place. Sometimes we do things as simple as shop for fishing flies or buy a new hat. But these are the small threads that make up this wacky tapestry of our lives.
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Rick Watson is a columnist and author. His latest book Life Changes is available on Amazon.com. You can contact him via email at rick@rickwatson-writer.com
