Birdlady

                 

I don't know what the heck is the matter with me. I've absolutely no ambition. None! Zilch! Nada!

Oh, I've been keeping busy, although most of the things I've done the last couple of days have not been setting my tail on fire by any means.

I tried to paint...it was too hot.

I tried working on the garden fencing around the front yard that keeps sweet, busy-body Zorro under control, but the first day I started working too late in the morning and I about cooked my brains out. So, yesterday morning around seven I went out and finished up that little chore.

I also managed to set up my two yard umbrellas, and placed them next to my park benches, they are supplying pleasant shade for my afternoon coffee breaks. I don't think my gardener is going to be pleased with them though, because they are just two more things for him to have to trim around. Well...bummer. Sucks for him.

However, yesterday morning something interesting did happen while I was working on the fencing. Birdlady, husband and some guy I didn't recognize came walking down the street. Of course, they didn't even look my direction. Oooh, I saw her, but I just kept working. I was hoping I would be done with my chore by the time they came walking back. I feel very uncomfortable around her.

Bummer, that didn't work...sucked for me.

I was just finishing my chore as they return, from the corner of my eye I see Birdlady is looking directly at me...(should I avoid her gaze, should I glare at her, should I hope the world opens up and swallows me?). It was one of those life changing seconds, what I do next is going to alter me forever.

I have to confess for the last while; I have wanted to say something to her. I've wanted to tell her how much she had hurt me, and how bad I felt that she had 'sicked the health department on me', but I knew that would fall on deaf ears. 

I don't know, maybe the heat had cooked my brain, or maybe I simply decided it was time to bury the hatchet.  Maybe it was fate, I just knew I had to do something.  So as that altering second approached, I didn't avoid her, I didn't glare at her, I simply said "hello". To my surprise and delight the world did not open up and swallow me, so I knew I had done the right thing. Whew!  Yep, all I said was "hello", but I felt as though a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I felt I had done something that made me a better person. 

After all, Birdlady is who she is, and she does what she does. I can never change her, but I can change me and carrying a grudge is hard work for me, it's a heavy wight and hurts my soul.  So yesterday I did something I think every person should do, and that's walk into the stream of self-forgiveness and baptize ourselves.  I know as I washed away my grudge, its heavy weight, and the hurt to my soul began to recede, I started to feel clean and light as a breeze.

Now it's true, I don't ever want to be best buddies withBirdlady, or even have a chatty conversation; but we are after all neighbors, so an occasional "Hello.", or "Nice Day, isn't it?" certainly won't kill me, will it?

Have a nice day, Birdlady, have a nice day.