Ready – Open

It’s not unusual lately for me to wake up stiff and tired rather than relaxed and eager to take on new physical challenges.

When I step on the scales I ‘m as likely as not to discover that the cake or ice cream I’ve eaten the night before has gone directly to my hips, that I’ve got to let another notch out on my belt.

The news seldom gets much better when I read the morning paper to discover that an eight year old girl whose family was found bound and murdered has been found in the custody of a registered sex offender, but her brother is still missing and presumed dead. And that’s only slightly more depressing than reading that Bush continues to argue that our involvement in Iraq is the direct result of 9/11, further evidence that our leaders are convinced that the American people will accept any lie if it is repeated often enough and if members of the party are not allowed to deviate from the Party’s version of “reality.”

I suppose I could just get depressed and simply go back to bed. Since I’m retired there’s no reason why I shouldn’t. Sometimes I’m even tempted to give in to my outrage and spend the day writing blistering blog entries that will stand America on its head and bring back the Democratic Party to its former glory

Instead, I generally choose to look for something beautiful to make my day more bearable, if not enjoyable. Luckily, it’s not too hard to find, whether in my yard, the nearby park, or a neighbor’s yard. For instance, here are two pictures of a flower in our backyard, one I’d never seen until I moved here. They both seem quite beautiful in their own way to me, and since it’s hard to decide whether I like the bouquet before or after the flowers open, I’ve included both: