Adjustments, Large and Small

[A rainbow because it is a symbol of changing weather, thus of all change. This one was in Hwange Park in Zimbabwe after a shower at dawn.]

I've been looking forward to various changes and challenges but all adjustments fit into our days with the sense of Velcro pulling apart and being repositioned. The largest adjustments happen over time. The small ones must be fitted in and may become invisible soon. I have a mobility adjustment. This a car-centric country -- except in very big cities like NYC. So I cannot get on a bus or subway to go to a store. Some I can walk to and that's very fine, some I can walk to but then cannot carry home what I might purchase. A time will come when I must have a car. But for now I'm thinking bicycle. But don't have one yet. Also I have not yet mapped out in my mind interesting walks except to the town center. I can't decide to walk beside the river -- there is no river and the beach is a bit far [except if I have a bicycle]. So in fact, that's a big adjustment. It will take time.

A small adjustment I knew I would face is the bathtub. Knowing I was coming to a typical late 20th century tub that is barely more than a receptacle for the shower -- not the big, deep wonderful tub I had both in my NYC apartment and in the house I left before that, I took many long, lovely baths before I left. So now it will be showers like about 99% of Americans. A lost luxury -- like the fire places I left behind when I move to NYC. Losses. But there will be pluses too.

A big plus is a dishwasher and a disposal in the kitchen, which has more than enough cabinet space -- a luxury like the other closets I have which also are large and still have empty spots. It is easier, of course to adjust to the pluses than the minuses -- that must be a rule of human behavior. Comforts are so much more, well, comforting.

Like most people who leave an active job and find themselves with expanses of time, I am dealing with that adjustment. I've long had an agenda in mind that includes writing, exercise, piano playing, sewing, reading and a social life. I mentally gave myself until tomorrow to put my physical surroundings in order and as of tomorrow I'll try to fit those activities into my day. I've already begun the piano -- a pleasure I think I'll write about in another post. It's not that I"m a fine musician -- definitely not! -- but that it has always been a joy. Blogging, too, is writing so I feel I'm partly fulfilling my agenda. Reinstituting lifelong yoga which as been on hiatus for some time is also a pleasure but requires discipline. Yes, my whole agenda requires discipline but, indeed, I have practiced discipline most of my life, a good habit not to be broken. So life moves along, changing.