Pick your own title. . .

• Choose joy.

• Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.

• We’re all going to hell in a hand basket.

• Ignorance is bliss.

• Tomorrow is another day.

Check any of the above.  They will all fit.

I spend far more time collecting truisms, verses and pithy sayings for my art journaling than I do actually making pages.  (I also spend way too much time and money shopping for supplies than actually using them, but that’s another problem.)   I was “supposed” to have a little private time Sunday to work on my art journal.  Turned out I had not prepped the page so while I was waiting for gesso to dry, I wandered around the internet.  Found a quote I have intended to use:  “today I will choose JOY.”  I love it and it was beautifully presented.  The internet being what it is, I soon found myself shopping for jewelry and other objects that featured the saying. 

Then I needed my paint to dry, so I was reading a book.  Then the doorbell rang.  Several kids from the impromptu basketball league around the corner informed me that my bicycle had been stolen from my garage.  Yes, the doors to the garage were open.  I like them open.  Airs it out and lets the sunshine in and just feels nice.  The bicycle was old and rusty with flat tires and behind a bunch of stuff.  I was completely bewildered as to the motive.  Turns out apparently it was for “the reward” they wanted for giving me this information.  No reward. 

The Beaumont police recovered my bicycle and found the juvenile who took it.  The officers were fast, competent and completely understanding that while it was an old, sad bike, it was mine and in my garage.  One officer sternly advised me to keep the doors down.  I will comply.  I don’t like it, but I have to accept that my neighborhood is not the same one I moved into almost 40 years ago.

 

Now I am nervous.  I don’t have much that would be of value on the open market and certainly nothing for the black market.  But I do have stuff that is precious to me.  And it’s on my property.  The one I pay taxes on and utility bills for.  I am not so much afraid of theft as I am of retribution…garbage can turned over (shuddering here), paint or eggs on the garage doors that are now firmly down, broken windows or other acts of unkindness.  I don’t like living this way.

And I won’t.  Today I will choose joy.  Even with the doors down and precautions taken.  Even knowing what may be around the corner, across town, all over the country.  Today I WILL choose joy!