No, you can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want…

There are days, or maybe even more so the nights, when I really want to go places. You know that feeling, don’t you? I don’t mean like hop on the Trans-Siberian Railroad (which I do really do want to do someday) but just the simple stuff that we all put on hold since COVID.  Like when you hit your favorite restaurant where everyone knows you by name, then enjoy a nightcap at the pretty bar with that generous pour… Or a whole day of shopping, popping in and out of whatever store you fancy and then head to a movie with your sweetie… Or your friend calls out of the blue for an impromptu get-together at that amazing croissant bakery… All or any of those used to be so simple and now are halting logistical challenges. Yes, I am dreaming pre-COVID, when life was simply about doing it all. No questions asked. Crazy but after over a year of minimalist socializing and not doing, I now wonder what it is that we want that we can still have? Or have we all adapted into a different self? What would you say yes to today? What is it that you want?

Returning to in-person teaching this year granted me loads of interactions on the daily: many dozens of students, six periods a day, and for all of those joyous beings, I am grateful. But this small patio table has brought me back together with a lunch crew and all those laughs I really missed. And need. On most of the sunny days you will find an assortment of teachers outside the Art room chatting about our loves and struggles and dreams and yes even our art. Here, I get what I need. Even on the hard rainy days we remind each other that this world will right itself. That there is a glimmer in the horizon.

Hiking is certainly another one of the still haves in my world. Made better still with the company of some marvelous and eager others willing to get to the top together. On this particular Autumn day we were able to summit as the clouds opened to reveal the whole valley floor and lake below. Listening to their banter fueled me as much as the vistas.

There is no question that I dwell too often on what I am missing, but I am getting better at this whole breathing in the here and now too. Sharing a candlelit dinner with my sweetie, taking walks to enjoy the foliage, soaking in the bath with relaxing Mozart, biking up and down the rolling hills, and laughing throughout my everyday encounters with colleagues and students alike. Somedays this beautiful and small life is enough.

In those moments I admit even without partaking in indoor dining or bouncing in crowded dance venues, there is no substitute for spending time with the very people who will listen to you on your worst days as well as your best ones.

Mick and his fabulous Stones were so right…

You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometime you find
You get what you need