AN IHOP BEGINNING

We decided to allow ourselves a splurge and go out to the local IHop for breakfast. It was a great idea. I looked forward to it. A lot of other people had the same idea and the place was crowded. The service was good. The experience disappointing -- the pancakes were luke warm; the syrup was cold; the egg whites had that stringy, slimy thing in them; the coffee was weak; and the bacon was limp.

It was a good idea. Sometimes good ideas just don't play out the way we envision them. In fact this happens to me altogether too often. Better not to anticipate. Better to just accept what comes. Better yet to make my own pancakes, heat my syrup, crisp my bacon, and make a nice strong cup of coffee -- and stay at home.

Home is my favorite place. It is modest, fairly frugally furnished, comfortable. Comfortable is the main thing. It is my haven, my safe place. I am a bit of a messy housekeeper but I tackled some of that this morning by beginning a clean up campaign. So the IHop experience did not subdue my enthusiasm for the new year. I made an attempt to once again begin writing my morning pages of stream of consciousness. Not very successfully this morning, but at least a beginning.

Beginnings are always hard. Chaim Potak said something like that in one of his novels. Too true. Even if it is a re-beginning. But some things are just worth beginning again.

Beginnings

Fortunately, there are many more beginnings than there are endings. At least in MY life -- so far. AND, beginnings keep happening. And this is a good thing. So, here I am, more than half way through my seventieth year, beginning a blog. Now, how crazy is that? VERY!.... very, very, very.

Beginnings are short lived but nonetheless fraught with a kazillion emotions. They can be very exciting. Also frightening, threatening, boring, fun and dumb to name just a few. Intimidating comes to mind. Then as beginnings move into processes, they frequently take on a momentum of their own -- quite unexpectedly -- no matter our plan. There they are just moving along gathering their own character, developing their own quirks, something just like the way we process through life.

So, let the beginning begin and take whatever forms that develop. I will expound, vent, wane poetic. (Yeah, I know, I'm supposed to "wax," but I frequently zig when I am supposed to zag and laugh right out loud when I am supposed to be serious, get used to it. That's how I am.) And I'll do all that other good bloggy stuff too. You may respond. More later on the rules and responsibilities of responses.

Let us all just have fun together. Enjoy one another. Grow. Learn. BE!