My Attention

Toast and jam and chai tea,
Gray sky, books and clothes strewn,
Doctor appointment today after gym.
Tax appointment Friday -- much to get ready.

Just finished Rapt, about what we give attention to.
I look around my bedroom and notice, draw back from
All the books I want to read, the Wall Street Journals.
I chide myself for my seeming inability right now
To corral my thoughts, to turn most of them out to pasture.

I'm a bit "wounded" by Bill's "We can be friends, but no more"
After our one-half hour meeting in a coffee shop.
(Did I ask too many questions to "qualify" him, as he put it?)

I'm insatiably curious, so I WANT to hear a new person's
Experiences, values, beliefs, delights.

Ah, another man answered my ad. I wonder where this will lead.

A Day Away from Home 3-8-2010

Two bites left of my sesame ball as I board the bus for West Seattle.
The Doctor was reassuring and my low mood has lifted,
Thanks to exploring a Vietnamese grocery and buying $12.76 of tofu, noodles and treats.
The $2. Vietnamese sandwich was certainly a part of my current contentment.
Seventy-five cents is a cheap price to pay for another trip another day to try out
Other staples or sweets in the International District.

My inner calculator said I'd reach the library before my bus transfer expired.
There I finish writing notes from Gallagher's book, Rapt, about attention and focus.
I walk the nine blocks home, paying attention to spring blossoms and the breeze.

I exchanged phone numbers with an earlier seatmate on the bus, who bakes his own bread
and invests in commodities. I stop for a sample at Great Harvest Bread Company.
I come home and feel like I've been out of the country for the day. Lucky me!