It was not my typical Thanksgiving day this year. I started out the day listening to a podcast interview of Ross Gay where he talked about the importance of walking for creativity and observation. I can definitely identify with that, I find I come up with the best ideas and see so much more of the details of what’s around me when I’m out walking. I’m also a much happier person going at this slower pace.
Ross also talked about in joy not being only about fantastic things that have happened or that make you happy instead joy is about articulating what we love in the midst of trouble. This really struck me, I think we spend so much time trying to feel up, we don’t realize we can also feel joy when life is not pretty.
On my way to Annemarie’s for breakfast I dropped my postcards off at the New Zealand post box down at the shops. In New Zealand letter carriers only deliver mail, they don’t pick it up, unlike most places in the US. In Wellington especially it makes sense since sometimes the mail delivery folks have to go up and down pathways and flights of stairs in order to deliver mail, I’m sure they don’t want to be hauling stuff out either. When I first visited New Zealand I wasn’t aware of this so I went out to the mailbox to drop off my letters to be sent. I realize some thing was amiss when I saw that there was just a slot and a door at the back with a key to open it. I couldn’t imagine that mail carriers had copies of everybody’s keys so I went back and Brendon told me that I had to take my letters to a post office or a post box to be mailed. Lol. I also walked past the house we used to own that’s only a block away from where Annemarie lives. It’s amazing to think it’s been 28 years since we lived there, it looks much the same as when we bought it, painted mainly white and with weeds growing out of the retaining wall. After we bought it we painted it a variety of bright colors and cleaned up the front and backyards. The backyard was full of gorse bushes, they were a ton of work to get out!
I saw lots of people biking to work and university. A lot of women were wearing light spring skirts and dresses with heavy black tights. It is windy and can be chilly in the morning, but when it heats up in the afternoon it’s quite nice so I wonder if they take their tights off later, or if it’s just the fashion now.
Today Annemarie and I went to Staglands, a wildlife preserve, with her friend Taz and his daughter Olive (Who was going by the name ‘baby shark’ that day). On the way out we stopped at the supermarket to pick up snacks and Annemarie showed me the American food section, it was very scant consisting mainly of American candy bars and soda, and a few items I had never heard of before. There is also a section called lifestyle drinks which included Red Bull and other energy drinks. Interesting name!
The drive out to Staglands was beautiful, first along the Wellington harbor then into the Hutt Valley, which was consists of very dense bush outside of the suburban neighborhoods. Heading into the Akatarawa Valley we were on a narrow winding road for several kilometers. It was technically a 2 lane rd. but we had to slow down dramatically to maneuver when another car came from the other direction. I can’t imagine what it’s like for tourists to make their way out there!
Olive is three years old and an adorable, intelligent little chatterbox. She had never been to Staglands before and absolutely loved petting and feeding the animals. We even got to do a special lunchtime feeding of the Keas, New Zealand parrots. There was a litter of about a half a dozen Kunekune piglets that were only two weeks old, they were adorable to watch toddling around. We saw dozens of different kinds of birds in the many aviaries, the Pukekoe loved Taz’s shoelaces.We saw different types of sheep, goats (who tried very hard to steal our food!) and emus. There was also a 6 month old calf who had the longest tongue I have ever seen!
When we took the kids to Staglands on our visit many years ago one of my strongest memories is of the wild deer eating not only the animal food, but also pulling the bag paper bag the food came in out of the kids hands! The other thing I remember is the Guinea pigs area where the kids could sit and play with the many baby Guinea pigs that lived there. Annemarie and Olive went in and sat quietly waiting for the ‘hamster kitties’ (Olive’s term for Guinea pigs) to come and visit them. They were quite shy, but eventually got comfortable and came out for a bit though they didn’t get close enough to pet. Olive also loved climbing on the various farm machinery and riding in the human powered train. Just as we headed to the car, the rain started pouring down so many times it quite well.
Tonight I got to sit in on my friend Mary’s all women ukulele group weekly practice. What a cool group of women! They have played ukulele together for well over a dozen years, one woman even had an electric ukulele, I had never seen such a thing before! It was wonderful to feel the energy and enthusiasm from this group. I don’t know what kind of music I expected them to be playing but when they started off with the song For Today, I was bowled over. It isn’t a song that I’ve ever particularly liked, but hearing it in that setting with a group of women harmonizing and playing their ukuleles it had a totally different feeling. I later learned they start all of the practice sessions with this song in honor of a group member who died last year, as this was her favorite song.
They next played Under the Milky Way, then a traditional Maori song, and ended with a tune they hadn’t tried before, Dancing In the Dark by Bruce Springsteen! It was awesome to watch the discussion and negotiation between group members about what key to play the song in, how fast or slow to go, etc. In between songs they caught each other up on what was going on in their lives, offered a bit of peer counseling and had lots of laughs. Such a fantastic evening.