Last night the doorbell rang. When we got there, just a bag, with “XXX MMM” on it and a bottle of wine inside. MMM: our neighbors’ initials: three-generations, all with names starting with M. An unexpected gift, and we felt loved. A parallel to my lock-down life: unasked for, but, in it’s way, a gift.Rotate reality
Sometimes when I’m stuck with a piece of art, I’ll turn it upside down, or look at it sideways. Rotating a piece frees the mind to see more clearly. Now I rotate my reality. Paid work, familiar schedule, routine assumptions gone. But look. Rotate reality, and you see the gift is time.
It is a gift to be able to paint each day. It is a gift to drift in a novel or just watch the sunlight change. It is gift to listen to the birds, so clear now without traffic and singing for the spring. Gifts, too, to call friends and wrestle with new technology.
Time to make friends again with my serger, and join the call for mask and nurses scrub caps.
Time to sort out art supplies and donate them to neighbors. While sorting, time as well to reclaim the back spare bedroom.
If my daughter and friend move back in the fall, I’ll move out again. But for now, morning sun and room for collage. But that’s the future. Right now, these gifts.