I love to play solitaire when I want to think. The old fashioned, before-computers way-- with a deck of cards. The game is varied enough to keep my mind busy but repetitive enough that I can have other thoughts too. It keeps the other side of my mind occupied so I can focus on my intended thought.
I especially like to play solitaire when I can’t sleep. I used to have chronic insomnia. I don’t know how to get rid of it; I personally just grew out of it. But nowadays once in a while, I suppose a normal amount of nights, I can’t sleep. Tonight might be due to two cups of coffee and 50 grams of sugar consumed before bed, but I’m not sure. But not sleeping is kind of a treat for me, because I love the night.
I enjoy the times when sleep doesn’t come easily because it’s quiet and I can work on whatever I choose in peace. For instance playing solitaire. And that is fun because when I’m not focused on one issue, the thoughts that come up are as random as the cards. I bounce between thinking about the past, the day, the next day, New Years, life, faith, death, or anything. Then when I approach tiredness, I file all my thoughts back in much the same way I that I tuck the cards back in their box. They are good and secured and I can return to them at any time.
I think the phrase “train of thought” is better expressed as “thought train.” Like a little train with lots of cars clunking along. My thought train tonight is about growing older, learning, and not having everything related to that pieced together yet, hence the clunky train. So, a friend of mine had a baby what I would call “recently,” but that baby is having her first birthday tomorrow. So I wonder when did a year become “recent” to me?
Also, one of the great things I look forward to next year is paying off my car, Sheila. I will own her- she will be officially adopted! That is an awesome financial achievement that I will be so proud of. But it also makes be realize that my “baby” car is going to turn four…..you mean that even four long years ago I was eligible and approved to finance a car?? What am I, an adult?
And on to the way over-played topic of New Years resolutions. Whether you or I make resolutions or not, it’s fun to look at the upcoming year and wonder what you will be like at the end of it. I wonder how far along I will be in Bengali, because although I’m excited to learn, I am at the point of memorizations and I don’t have a system down yet. I would love to think that I could read kids’ books in Bengali by next December. I have three kids’ books already. I think that I can, but I have months of memorizing ahead of me. (Was that a New Years resolution?)
All of this to say what I realize at the end of almost every solitaire-playing spell: simply that time goes by.
4 comments:
Ooh, where did you get Bengalian children's books?
I like your description of a thought train - I imagine yours with a cargo car full of M&Ms and scrapbook supplies, being led by JC upfront with Daniel waving eagerly to you.
And, even seeing you in your wedding dress when you came to visit us, I didn't think of you as an adult - simply as "Lishaboo"
Hey Cindy,
I got the Bengali kids books from England!! I paid for them in "pounds," and it was airmailed to me in a bubble wrap envelope. I've never gotten a package from overseas before, so I was very excited.
That's so fun! :o) Are they learning-to-read books or native stories (maybe fairytales!?!?!) of Bengali?
Hey Cindy,
They are not quite learning-to-read books, although they look like our second grade books here. I don't think they are traditional Bengali stories either. I couldn't find any of those-- only Indian ones. They are kind of like our kids books like the Bearentein Bears and "Alexander and the horrible, no good, rotten day" (did you read that book?).....just good kids stories.
I have one about a multicolored elephant that promotes good relationships with people who are different. There's one about a jaguar that I got for Daniel (it seemed fitting), and one flip/pop-up book about a garden that has really funny dialogue. (As in, "What is this? A ball! Bounce! Bounce! And what is this? Yes, it's a shovel! Dig! Dig!!"
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