Thursday Seeds | Put something on

The three important things to do first thing in the morning according to a favorite mentor is:

Suit up,

shut up, 

and show up.

And I got two out of three, for this post should have gone out yesterday for Thursday.

The dog ate my homework, there was a school shooting, and someone got cancer or Covid. (not me.)

And while all of those are true, what is also true is that I learned that hummingbirds travel in a group called a charm and they are all over the backyard getting ready for their journey. They don’t wear coats, they go where it’s warm.

I also know that the hooded warbler that hit the window dodging the hummingbird dive bomb flight pattern was here in a daze long enough for me to catch a good glimpse. With the cooler weather comes the migration cycle of birds.

And so to the suit up part of this post, last week was get naked. If we take that steak you grilled in the back yard, and add more than salt and pepper, maybe a sauce with peppercorns, we put something on it. The view of it is different. There are mushrooms and plump soft peppercorns that have a look of a small caper but pack a spicy punch. 

The steak is suited up. The dinner is perfect, and the diners are happy!

Instead of eating the same thing everyday, we can dress things up with spices. We can add variation in a pleasing form. We can put something on.

We can frame the canvas of a piece of art, the portrait that triggers a memory, the narrative of a not so nice day.  We can be grateful it wasn’t us all the while knowing that if we don’t do something about it, it could be us too. There is much work to do. I’m going back to the basics.

Suit up, shut up, and show up.