Hello All,
As I was walking home after meeting a friend for breakfast, I turned the corner onto my block and spotted the super of my building in the distance surveying “something” in the courtyard from the sidewalk. We are a six story pre-war building with an equal number of apartments on each side of the courtyard. My super was slowly looking all the way up and then down, would take a few steps to get a different vantage point and begin again. Up and down. Nothing frantic, but very deliberate.
And I immediately thought, “uh-oh, I wonder what’s wrong”. He’s frequently outside and knows the building like the back of his hand. And he was definitely looking at “something”.
As I got closer, I waved and he waved back. I still had half a block to consider what the problem might be and what might happen as a result. Missing bricks, broken or old windows, why this side and not the other? Didn’t they tuck point, or whatever that’s called, right before I moved in? Maybe something fell from the roof. OR a window air conditioner broke free from its bracket and crashed! Maybe updated brackets were now going to be required for safety reasons. My list was endless and my thoughts jumped from here to there and back again at lightning speed.
And as I approached, I casually asked “what’s happening?”
My super smiled broadly and said, “I’m counting cherries.”
“Cherries?”
“There are millions this year. Sour cherries. They’re the best kind.” And then he pointed to the tall tree he had been surveying and told me its story. It had been brought from Poland (where he is originally from) years ago by a woman who had lived in the building for a little while. It was very small and then one year began to grow and grow and grow. He opened his arms high and wide as he spoke - pointing to that spot and this one. And how he makes a cherry liqueur from the cherries and it is delicious because it is not too sweet.
And standing in front of the big and beautifully lush tree - I saw them, the soon (well in several weeks) to be cherries and the post blossoms from which they took shape. And I knew that I too would now be counting cherries.
After I went upstairs to 2B, I experienced a gentle smack to my head that travelled to my heart as it dawned on me that “counting cherries” had not been on my list of what the “something” that my super was surveying might be. Not anything close to counting cherries. Much less millions of them.
Energy follows conscious thought. I know this. I believe this. But I have to work at it. The realization time of a thought that is less than helpful is shorter and the turnaround time to a thought that is more uplifting and full of potential a bit quicker. But still, it requires effort to move to “wellness instead of illness”, “more instead of less”, “balance instead of imbalance”. And curiosity and patience and compassion to hear the thought in the first place.
I have always wanted to be prepared for all possibilities. So I’m kind of on the outlook, just in case. Just in case I need to, you know, make a plan. Quickly. I had told my friend at breakfast that I’ve realized I want to be prepared for a blindside. Which is a heck of a lot of pressure and it wouldn’t be a blindside if I was prepared for it, now would it?
So maybe what I really want is to trust that I can handle a blindside and allow for an “ah-hah” as much as an “uh-oh”.
Because sometimes, it’s about cherries and a courtyard tree from Poland instead of bricks and brackets. And being present instead of prepping.
💜 Cindy
2B in Brooklyn