Promises

I had a doctor’s appointment Friday moning.


Don’t worry. I wasn’t sick. Just routine. One of those pit stops I make regularly before I get back out there in the human race.


I don’t know about you, but my appointment always includes a blood pressure check. Bad news. Traffic is always so bad ... people tailgating me ... passing me in school zones where the speed limit lights are flashing ... cutting in front of me with inches to spare ... then suddenly hitting their brakes and making a right turn into a fast food place.


I don’t have to put the cuff on to know that my blood pressure is up ... way up ... by the time I hop out of Little Red and go hot-footing into my favorite doctor’s office.


But this Friday morning? I don’t know what was different about it, except I made it all the way to the vicinity of the doctor’s office without having a run-in with somebody ... oh, there were a couple of close calls (there always are, right?) ... but I arrived as calm as a cucumber.


I was making that last turn into the parking lot in front of the medical facilities ... and a few other commercial ventures. 


I really hadn’t noticed a vehicle turning ahead of me, but there it was as I turned in ... and it was stopping in a Fire Lane (no parking there, right?) ... and it was parking. 


Just as I started to go around, the driver’s side door opened in my path.


I hit the brakes ... and Little Red responded like a pro, thank goodness, for the driver ... who obviously hadn’t looked before opening his door ... or hopping out ... hopped out in my path, smiled in my direction and strode off.


I think I needn’t say what my blood pressure reading was minutes later.


-S&G- 


LIFE, writes LOREE (Kansas), at least for the adult years, is a combination of three major things ... with a lot of subdivisions:


“We spend our time in 'panic mode' ... ‘blast off’ ... and once in a while, 'cruise control.' 


“Blast off consists of when we hit the floor running, thanks to an alarm clock.  


“Panic mode was when that same clock kept telling us that we couldn't possibly get kids ready for school, beds made, lunches packed, and make it to our own job on time, looking unruffled and fresh as a daisy.  


“Cruise control was on those rare days when everything clicked, fell together, and nothing went wrong. 


“Those days were so rare, that now I can barely remember ANY of those, at all!


“Somehow, I spent my last five years of working, alternating between counting the days off on a calendar as the countdown to retirement progressed, and mistakenly thinking that when that day arrived, it would resolve the panic mode, and do away with the blast off.  And cruise control would be all that was needed! 


“How naive can one foolish person be, and make it to MY age?  Well, I'm living proof that we never get far from the 'roots' we grew during our working years! 


“I still blast off on days when I have a doctor's appointment, or have to pay the bills ... panic mode is when I look at the calendar and see that it is REALLY Monday, when I would have sworn it was only Saturday.


“Cruise control?  Forget it or scratch it ... either way, it is as rare now, as it was seven or eight years ago!”


-S&G- 


TODAY’S POEM: I've often said that I can't rhyme worth a dime ... but here I go again.


I keep trying. For me it's something like trying to leap over a high picket fence ... uphill ... and on a slippery slope, at that. I have trouble maintaining any kind of a rhyme scheme while trying to tell a story ... if, indeed, I have a story to tell.


I keep promising that I won't, but I do ... keep trying, that is. It's simply the challenge, I guess.


The result? Today's poem ... a double-edged blunt blade, if you will ... a poem about the difficulty ... at least the difficulty I have ... with keeping promises, especially to myself ... and it's a poem in rhyme:


PROMISES


I begin my year
With high resolve,
But my plans, I fear,
Start to dissolve
As the new wears off
The leaf I've turned
And the flames flare off
Bridges I've burned.


(originally published in Mature Living)


-S&G-


COMMENT? Feel free ... below, if you like. 


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-S&G-


Oh, and if you’d like to see what’s up with my other ... DAILY blog ... here’s a link to it:


http://rbrimm.blogspot.com/


Thanks for paying a visit.




-S&G-


UNTIL NEXT TIME ... take care ... see ya!


-S&G-
© 2009