Chocolates for Thought (sorry, I'm in a rambling mood)

If a chocolate is available at a drugstore, then it can't be the kind that will have me devour a whole box of them. With this in mind, I got myself a bag of Dove's Promises -- squares of chocolates with a creamy caramel filling -- and tucked it away in the butter compartment in the fridge. Since I don't care for caramel, I could just nibble a bit on the chocolate coating and dump the rest, fool myself into thinking that I'd eaten the whole piece. Certainly better than chewing on a chocolate and then spitting it out, the way a friend does.

Chocolate craving time came and I took one square of chocolate and nibbled on the exterior, as planned. But my tongue clung to the caramel and refused to let go and I had to eat the whole square. That was not all. There was a message on the inside of the unwrapped foil.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

It ought to be a single step...more punch to it. Of course, I had to read more of these messages. I took the bag of chocolates with me and settled on the sofa.

happiness is in the heart, not in the circumstances.

Tell that to the dogs and children being abused, tell that to the prisoners being tortured, tell that to people being blown up by a bomb, tell that to someone who's just lost a dear one. Give me a better one, please.

Listen to the Wind

Ah that's nice. I leaned toward the window and caught the sound of a distant fire engine. I thought of the time when my previous neighbor had dialed 911 because she believed my house was burning. Three fire trucks and cop cars drew up alongside our house and I had to explain to them that it was a false alarm. Just some weeks before that incident, my previous opposite house neighbor, Sally, yanked me out of the house and we went for a walk around the neighbourhood with our dogs.

Sally: Anu, is everything all right with you?

Anu: Yyyesssss. Funny, XX (my next door neighbour) keeps asking me the same question. She phones me at odd hours and asks me if I am all right. Of course, I am all right. I mean, whatever all right means. Does she mean all right in the head or does she mean all right in the body? You know Sally, I think XX is going crazy.

Sally is silent and then she says: Anu, she thinks that Jay is abusing you and she's very concerned. Her son, came over to our house the other day and
he wanted us to make sure you were all right.

Anu: Jay abuse me? Good heavens, no! If anything, I'd say he's the one that is the abused :) (I start to laugh).

From then on, I'd be terrified that if I died innocently (is there such a thing as an innocent death) XX may end up accusing my husband of murder! Not only would he have to deal with the grief of my death, he'd have to deal with all the unpleasant stuff of having to prove that he is innocent :o

Sally was relieved because she is very fond of me. When I went to India, last year, she was so concerned I might starve in India that she bought me a big box of protein bars to see me through a month's stay.

Anyway, after the fire engine false alarm, XX eventually got admitted to a hospital/home.

I sighed, and opened another chocolate.

Call a friend and set a date to get together.

OK, OK will do....later. Can't you see, I'm curled up on the sofa with my Murphy baby, the bestesstttt friend ever. If two years ago, someone had said that I'd love another dog this way, I'd have been mortified. God knows I loved Sirocco so much that I died when he died. And yet, here I am, loving this dog, Murphy, so much and Sirocco is becoming an illusion. Life is indeed very strange, but beautiful.

Feel the grass under your bare toes.

Oh, mmmm... sure, carpet will have to do for now. I dropped my socked feet to the floor. My feet get so cold that if one foot touches the other when I'm asleep, I wake up startled. And we are having a cold front, sorry I'm not baring my feet until summer. What's next?

Feel the grass under your bare toes.

You just said that. Oh come on, give me something different. There were five messages asking me to feel the grass under my bare toes. I refused to comply and ate the rest of the chocolates and stopped reading the messages. I guess the chocolates sold in drugstores can be just as good as the Belgian ones :-)