Random Friday bucket

So I have a few random thoughts that I'm not sure how or if they'll connect. Let's see, shall we?

First, I have to say my wacky bedroom plant is in the craziest bloom ever. Like, who even knew Filene could or would bloom?? He was relegated to some back school room, left to his own survival wits at school year's end, until Sam brought him to me, and discovered his crazy leany curve fit *perfectly* along the wall of my bedroom. And now he's BLOOMING. In JANUARY. Yep. He's a special plant. The whole house now smells of his flowers. It's crazily hard to describe. The gatos are confused, Willa in particular doesn't know WHAT's up with Filene. So, that's setting the olfactory scene here.

Next, squirrels. A funny moment this morning. I'm leaning against the threshold in my living room, munching my toast, surveying the morning, the general scene. I look up at the window across from me, see a squirrel sitting on the fence post, busily munching on his nut, doing the same thing as me. I crack up.

OH, and squirrels -- I never knew they made sounds!! I'm walking to the park this afternoon to swing and negotiate with my inner child (quite successfully, I might add, thank god she's bribeable with reading), and I hear this weird sound and think ... is that a cat? a bird? a kid? what the hell...? until I'm alongside a tree, it's louder, I look up and see squirrels sitting in the branches, making this semi barky squeaky noise. I'm stunned. The things one learns.

Next up, workouts so great they make you want to throw up. Yes. Just another random for our random Friday bucket here, but I'm in boxing class last night, and it's awesome. It pushes me so hard, at one point I think, "I'm nearly going to throw up." And then instantly, "This is awesome." After class, I thought how half of my possible blog readers would completely get this, no more words needed. And the other half would think something like, WTF? Her workout makes her want to throw up and this is a good thing? And I thought how I was most definitely not always this way. Certainly not as a child. It was rowing that flipped that switch. Rowing that pushed me physically beyond all bounds and taught me to love that, crave that, realize there were so few arenas of life where we could get that. Being pushed hard but in a safe way, doing things we didn't think possible, even if briefly -- just like that, how is that not a miracle? Where right before our eyes, in our own doing, something goes from impossible to possible? This is the striving so hard you come right up to or just past your body's limits. How else will we know where the limits are? How else will we expand them? It's just like the comment about comfort zones a few posts down....

I'll close with a nod to a conversation only one person will get ... a lift of the glass of Sam Adams Winter to graveyards and fish farms and friends you can visit each with. It's a great life and world we have, friends.