Don’t be surprised

“Don't be surprised if life in general seems a bit confusing…”

That’s how my horoscope starts today, then it goes on to explain planetary positions and the impact of the full moon. The analytical part doesn’t mean much to me, but that simple charge does: “Don’t be surprised.”

Don’t be surprised if today is different from yesterday. Other people whirling in their own orbits collide with you in ways that are different from mere hours before. They exist separate from you after all. Don’t be surprised.

I am, of course, always surprised. We each live as outside observers of the lives of people we know. I experience my own life as an amazing, oversized, romantic, even excessive story…and why not? And each of the dozen or so people I encounter on the average day lives on a separately defined planet, populated by the people they know and playing out stories that are just as amazing and wonderful. From time to time, worlds collide, in ways large or small. You shouldn’t be surprised.

Don’t be surprised if Monday is a difficult day. It happens every week. Sunday is a tough day; Monday I tackle the tough projects; Tuesday is better, and I am always surprised.

Don’t be surprised if the dogs who got along yesterday are growling and snarling over a water bottle or an apple today. Toby loves apples beyond all measure, and Nell is a little closer to motherhood today than she was yesterday. Max knows you bought cookies yesterday, so yesterday’s generalized mourning has morphed into a series of pointed, barky reminders that you are most certainly neglecting him.

Impossible not to be surprised all over again by the landscape. Early morning fog in the valleys and fields faded to sage green by frost. Bright (really bright!) yellow maple leaves in relief against tree limbs more prominent every day. Italy is like this, they tell me, not in the details but in that the light is different every day. Almost daily, there is something that leaves me staring, slack jawed and glassy eyed, at this place where I live.