I opened the door to my deck and sniffed the air appreciatively.
November! It didn’t really smell like November.
It smelled too good, too warm, too inviting, kind of like fresh laundry brought in from the clothesline, all rumpled and slightly damp.
Overhead, the sky was trying really hard to be a nice baby blue, but failing somehow, instead appearing kind of weirdly dark and mysterious.
I decided to ignore the weirdly dark and mysterious shade of blue and ask my girlfriend if she wanted to go for a walk on the beach.
Since her diagnosis of cancer a few months ago, she has walked, as regally as ever, or at least as regally as her 5’ 1” frame will allow, but with the assistance of a cane.
Needless to say, I am very proud of her resiliency!
I felt like a walk on the beach where we could laugh at winter, at least for the moment, was a good idea for us both.
We needed a breath of fresh air to blow away ill tidings that seem to be hitting the headlines and airwaves recently.
Layoffs and more layoffs. The other day there was some lady on the radio who was supposed to be an expert in resumes. She knew all about them! She, apparently, knew how to make your resume sparkle and shine so that it would get selected from among the 500 other resumes being sent out, all for the same job.
I listened skeptically.
“Don’t put how many years experience you have on your resume because that will let them know that you are old, really old,” she said. Of course she sugar coated her words, but I got the idea.
“Oh, my goodness,” I think to myself. “So much for experience.”
Anyway, it seems Albertans are caught up in a tangled web of worry. The thing is, you might have a job today, but what about tomorrow?
Tomorrow doesn’t look good either, apparently.
And, of course, smack dab in the middle of this tangled web of worry and doom and gloom what should fall but Christmas!
How the heck are we supposed to deal with that.
My husband and I have been watching lots of Christmas specials lately not because he really wants to, but because I have the remote. Ho! Ho! Ho!
Anyway, it seems most these poignant specials can, in an hour and a half, make you glad or sad or both or, on the other hand, if they’re too mushy and slow moving, make you fall asleep.
But, seriously, the most poignant stories, and the ones that grab your heart and turn it to mush are about people who deal with all kinds of adversity.
And, through it all, they learn what is really important and what makes life worth living.
I like those movies.
Anyway, there is a time when one must not watch life go by on the big screen, while curled up under a blanket on the couch, but go live it.
And, so it came to be on a day in November where the air smelled fresh and clean and the sky was only slightly ominous my friend and I did just that.
We went for a walk on the beach.
It was lovely, that walk. We made our way slowly, letting the sun have its way with the ice and snow that clung to the edges of the sidewalk.
And we talked and we laughed like friends do when they are out for a walk on a clear and lovely day in November.
And now the weather has turned ugly or beautiful for that matter, (if you like watching snow fall) and Christmas is looming closer by the minute.
There will be no more walks on the beach, at least until the weather takes a turn for the better, which could be soon or could be in April.
Who knows!
But, it is good to have those moments when all the worries of the world are kept at bay for at least a little while and simply just walk in the sunshine with a friend!