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Thursday Aug. 14, 2014


Little things.

Make our day.

Little things, rarely our undoing.

Some days that seems what life is all about.

Not true.

But in those moments, it feels so small. So unimportant and worthy-less.

Yesterday was one of those complex – hundred things to do – days, as will today be.

Kind of day where every five minute task would require ten to explain what I was doing, and why.

Every half-hour would take an hour.

Some days, chock full of mini-events, like yesterday. Make it challenging to withhold when someone asks ‘how was your day?’  Answering fully would take far too long and feel like a re-living of it ….

Worse, days when nobody asks.

Nobody at home waiting for my arrival – to tell their day-stories too.

Living alone, being alone, has its many great advantages.

That isn’t one of them.

I’m not trying to start a pot-luck pity-party. Just recognizing this element of my life is more important than I often let on (I suspect I’m not alone in that), that some days it feels like a hole I couldn’t fill.

Intellectually I know that is false-thinking, but emotionally it is completely understandable.

You might ask – why not call a friend? I could have, but on days like yesterday, did they really want to hear a bunch of mind-numbing stories that are important only to me? Likely not, and at the end of one of those days, I lack energy for being magnanimous.

Must go now – to tidy up before cleaners come (first time I’ve had such a service in many years – looking forward to it). 

Today, already, so much better than yesterday!



Mark Kolke

column written/ published from Calgary

morning walk: 16C/61F, light clouds, steady breeze – morning sounds rumbling along in every direction as commuter life comes to life – the buzz of everyone starting, moving. Gusta dreams of that rabbit on the other side of the fence, again, but otherwise goes through her morning routine as numbly as I did this morning . . .

Reader feedback / comments always welcome:

CARPE DIEM MY CAPTAIN

I need help accepting or not the level of incompetence that has entered into the service industry.  From ordering a to-go meal from a restaurant to buying a bed from a nationally known furniture store.  The art of excellence in customer service seems to have gone by the wayside, as the saying goes.  I try to help by kindly, diplomatically pointing out a more positive solution for preventing incompetency only to be thought of as 'demanding'.  Is it wrong to demand excellent customer service, especially when you are paying out the nose for it, these days? , GW, Bon Wier, TX


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