Wake-Up Call

For someone who usually wakes before 4 a.m. daily, the past couple of days have provided some pretty lousy wake-up calls.

Professionally, there had been a job eating away at me over the Golden Week holidays and a check this morning revealed I had overdone it as I had suspected. Given a proper amount of time and no distractions, I could fix it up today. Still looking at a tough and demanding week ahead.

Then, one of the great joys I’ve had this year has been watching the plants I’d grown from seed grow and start to flower. I was so proud of myself and it had provided me with a great sense of accomplishment and achievement, boosting my self-esteem in a much-needed manner. I had given away a lot of kangaroo paw plants to family, friends and neighbors, thinking I was doing them a kindness. But I went to a plant nursery yesterday. Not only did they have kangaroo paw blooming spectacularly, they were selling very cheaply and took up a mere portion of the space my so-far flowerless plants occupy. I felt terrible. I had thought I was being kind and thoughtful to people, but perhaps I had inflicted an unwanted burden on them?

Kangaroo paw at the nursery left me feeling utterly deflated

These issues all served to make me strive to be more conscious of others, my perennial plague!

Speaking of plagues, whatever the latest bugs ripping through the Tokyo area is, the bugger has gotten me big time. I’ve been crook all through Golden Week and felt particularly bad today.

A single flower on one of the nursery’s callistemons (bottlebrush) had bloomed, raising expectations of ours showing soon

Nearing midday, I’m feeling a little better than I was in the morning.

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