The Summertime Blues
I’ve made some executive decisions to give up some of the luxury items in my life – the blow-drys, the yoga studio, and of course the clothes, shoes, jewelry, and whatnots that I used to be so fond of acquiring. I moved my hair appointment out by another four weeks and have to just deal with the sight of grey hair in my hairline. What doesn’t go away are the big bills like the mortgage. Sigh, what’s a grown up to do?
A fellow blogger was recently reading about Abu Kasim’s Slippers, that look much like the Serbian shoes my mother in law brought me last time she visited. Everyone wanted a pair once they saw me wearing them with those cooler than wow curled up toes, but when T went to Croatia she found those shoes are pretty darn expensive and don’t make travel gifts. But back to the slippers, my friend writes:
“The key to your happiness is to own your slippers (google “Abu Kassim”, an Ethiopian story for the backstory on slippers), own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don’t. If you keep saying your slippers aren’t yours, then you’ll die searching, you’ll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. *Not only our actions, but also our omissions, become our destiny.*”
In recent days, I’ve been reminded by friends and colleagues of what got me to this point, and though the start of the 2011 hurricane season is tomorrow, summer’s heat is already rising to a wreckless pitch, and fantastical thoughts of a lottery reinvention beckon, I’m thoroughly convinced that the answers will come, in time, on their own.
Meanwhile, just to be sure, I’ve washed all my slippers and put them out to dry on the screen porch.
June 2nd, 2011 at 4:31 pm
The whole country is in some sort of chaotic weather. If people still think climate change is a conspiracy, then I just don’t get it! But I do love the slipper story. Glad you did, too.