Friday Dispatch: The Cliff's Notes
Stringing together the days
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Photo by aviva lou
Friday greetings,
Do you ever reach the end of a week and struggle to recall much of anything? I’m not talking about memory loss here. I’m talking about the whoosh of life and how easy it is to forget to pause.
M.J. and I share a nightly ritual of asking each other for three high points from the day. It occurs to me now that this is a way of doing just that – pausing, remembering, not to mention connecting.
To this end, I’m going to recall some moments from the past week. A kind of Cliff’s Notes for daily life. (Come to think of it, who even is Cliff?)
As Seneca wrote, “Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.” And yet, each day is not separate. Our days are all strung together, beads and charms on a string, at once strong and fragile.
Shabbat
Woke up thinking about “Interstellar,” which we watched Friday night with Aviva. New green hair clip that she spotted for me at a cute mother-daughter shop on Friday. Car time with her inimitable playlists. To wit: “It’s You I Like” by Mr. Rogers.
Every part of you.
Your skin, your eyes, your feelings
Whether old or new.
I hope that you'll remember
Even when you're feeling blue
That it's you I like,
It's you yourself
It's you.
It's you I like.
Sunday
Rainy & chilly & quiet. Remade the daybed in my office after Aviva’s visit. The room smelled like her, which made me happy. Instrumental music. Scissors, paper, Mod Podge. Calendars with M.J. Trash and recycling, a paper/cardboard week. Journal: Fear –> fear less –> fearless.
Monday
Dreamed I had a rash on my arm. Woke up scratching. Tick bite. Ew, David! Urgent care, Doxycycline. Wrote fiction for 10 minutes. Drove to Hadley to do an errand, mainly an excuse to give Aviva another hug. Parking lot meetup reminded us both of Covid days. Time warp. Writing group. Weird new bump on my arm, too, unrelated to tick bite, as far as I could tell, right on the wing of a ladybug tattoo. Ladybugs are good luck, right?
Tuesday
Last-minute dermatologist appointment to check out weird new bump. M.J. text, exactly the words I needed to hear. Dentist appointment for Mom. Reading in the waiting room. Pearl & Dad met up for lunch at the Black Sheep. Amherst’s last-standing bookstore looking for new owners. When I was a teenager, there were NINE bookstores in Amherst. Oy. Itchy arm. Zyrtec before bed.
Wednesday
Two-mile jog in East Longmeadow while Chupie got groomed. Wrote 11s. Finished listening to This Is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman (LOVED!). Tea date at Familiars in Northampton with a Jewish writer friend. Idea for a children’s book. Too tired to watch Shrinking Season 3 finale. Fifty pages left in Demon Copperhead. Can’t stop reading, but need to sleep.
Thursday
Pearl’s birthday! Both kids in their 20s now. What even is time? Awe. Chilly but sunny. Forsythia in bloom. West Hartford diner lunch and shmy (rhymes with high) with Mom & my niece Hannah, who teaches Jewish preschool and had the week off from work for Passover. Sat on all the ridiculously expensive Crate & Barrel furniture. Reading Linda Pastan in a used bookstore. Fun dinner at Calico in Easthampton. So many hugs.
From The Five Stages of Grief by Linda Pastan
Friday
Last page of a journal. Excited for the new 11s group starting next week (take the leap & sign up here!). Waiting for biopsy results, not my favorite activity. Aviva’s half-birthday. Dear friend turns 83 today. (Happy birthday, Doug!) Measuring time in birthdays of beloveds is not a bad way to live.
That’s a week in the life, dear readers.
It was a lovely exercise, honestly, to take my time with this today. Any practice that slows me down and helps me look around the many rooms of my life is worthwhile. In that vein, here’s a Substack I recommend, a kind of visual version of daily Cliff’s Notes:
Shabbat shalom and love,
Jena
Oh I love that Linda Pastan poem. Adding it to my "stash."
I love this! If anyone is inspired to try a practice like you describe, check out this Substack, called Tell Me 3 Good Things: https://substack.com/@emilygainesdemsky?r=36mr2r&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=stories&shareImageVariant=light