It is the expansiveness of this rural place that reminds one of perspective and of how we relate in the grand scheme of things.
~
People with control issues (and I include myself in their numbers) are probably more easily frustrated than most. We certainly can get our snooty noses out of joint when things don't go our way. Overwhelmed by all that is on my plate -- and I resist the temptation to list them because I am certain they are paltry compared to what others are dealing with -- what I'm really upset about is my inability to deal gracefully with the very things over which I have no control.
Big deal, right? Exactly.
~
Billy Collins (sadly, no relation) was Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003. I like his poetry very much, so much so that my poor husband had to endure my regular recitations one winter. My husband astutely reasoned that if he just read the poems first he didn't have to endure my oratory. The happy result is that we both share a language of Billy Collins references. My husband can say that "the lion of contentment has placed a warm heavy paw upon his chest" and I know that he is saying how much he enjoyed the dinner I cooked for him.
~
Late on a chilly February night, I trudged up the lane from barn to house, completely immersed in feeling sorry for myself, for I was SO overwhelmed, boo-hoo-hoo. Luckily, I looked skyward and the view stopped me in my tracks. Through the bare black bones of the trees I saw thousands of stars twinkling away. A crescent moon helped keep the sky dark and the stars used this to their fullest sparkly advantage. I have seen many beautiful things in my time on this earth, but none so beautiful as a dark winter sky full of stars.
Billy Collins' words swirled in my head: a few stars singing a song their mother sang when they were mere babies in the sky.
With the ancient star-studded universe as witness, all my petty problems arose in a puff of angry vapor, and quickly dissolved into the nothingness that they were.
