Capturing Time

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I, ” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us”

J.R.R. Tolkien

It’s 8:30 in the morning and I am sitting at my desk, in my robe, thinking of the things I should be doing. None of them include writing. The list begins with showering, getting dressed, changing the bed sheets, doing laundry, walking over to get the mail and possibly to the store to pick up some mild detergent to wash my cashmere sweaters. I hear my Grandmother telling me to get on with it. Sitting around in her robe was not part of my grandmother’s DNA and she didn’t believe it should be mine.

I remember a friend calling to ask if I wanted to go to lunch with her. This was back in the days when we still used the phone to talk to people. I told her I had things to do at home. She thought that was silly. Whatever it was, I could do it tomorrow. I went to lunch. Although, when I think about it, I’m not sure if I should have been taking advice from someone who kept their unopened mail in the oven. I once pointed out that it might be a fire hazard. She thought that would only be a problem if she used the oven. Somehow, there was logic in her reasoning.

But today, being my Grandmother’s granddaughter, I got up from the desk and got to work on my To do List. Now, after completing my chores. I’m back at the desk wondering where I was going with all of this to begin with.

My mind wanders to yesterday and lunch with a friend at a new French restaurant we’d been waiting to try. We sat on the sidewalk patio in the warm autumn sun. Both the food and the company were exceptional.

Then I remembered going to, The Paris Flea Market this past weekend. Sadly not held in Paris, just the parking lot of a local mall. In one of the stalls, I came across Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh, with a 1945 copyright. This was the year the book was published. It’s now on my bookshelf. I wonder if the book, with its theme of Divine Grace, was there waiting for me?

Now, far removed from whatever the topic of this blog was meant to be, I wonder how much of my procrastination was caused by attempting to take my mind away from the morning news and the horrible atrocities we, human beings, reign down on each other. I would rather think about chores, lunch at a French restaurant or an old book. The alternative is gut wrenching.