“winter, through your hoary frost, I travel on, longing to be lost.”
angie weiland-crosby
a notice recently arrived
telling me the stamps i’d ordered online
from the post office this past summer
were finally arriving in my mailbox
it had been so long
i’d forgotten about them
told me what day they’d be delivered
then they weren’t there
even though
they were marked as ‘delivered’ online.
they were not there all week
went to the post office
i have the nicest mailman in the world
but wanted to see if they could find them
woman at the desk
said i had to request a refund on their website
after navigating through
using the tracking code
filling in all the blanks
it responded
“not eligible for refund as it was not insured.”
read it a couple of times
wait, wasn’t it coming from them to me?
weren’t they the post office, the ones who i was buying them from?
weren’t they supposed to deliver them to me?
wasn’t that their one job?
my mailman said he’ll check all the boxes nearby
but i fear they are lost in the abyss.
next time i’ll ask them to please insure their own product before trying to send it to me using their services.
—
“and then she had to fill out so many forms she forgot why she had come and what she had left behind.”
-amy tan
reminiscing about my visit
to beautiful ireland
six years back, in july
how we found our way around the country
oh, we did a few turn-arounds here and there
as you can see above
but somehow we always ended up where we were going
eventually.
even with directions asked and kind answers given
regional accents, local advice, and lore
thrown in for good measure
it could be a challenge at best
‘”oh, just go over the hill for a bit, turn at the old barn, you’ll see a huge green field with hills, and some sheep, and then a pub, they don’t have the best sandwiches but stop in for a pint, say hi to seamus for me if you see him, he’s a good lad, he just had that one thing that wasn’t really his fault, and all is forgiven, and oh, don’t turn by the church, go past it, there’s no sign, but you’ll see a big rock where john’s shed used to be before it burnt down in that fire in ’79 when everything was so dry, and take a sharp turn there….” – and so on.
whether bumping along on a sheep path, sharing a two-way road with one lane, or driving half in a hedgerow
we found all the places we wanted to be
and discovered so many surprising and magical places along the way.
“going in the wrong direction, but making really good time.”
-cheri huber
as a collector of the classic golden books
i am endlessly fascinated
by their history, artwork, authors, short tales, and backstories
i finally found and ordered one i’d been looking for
“lucky mrs. ticklefeather”
which seems to have quickly made it’s way through multiple cities
only to land in detroit a few weeks ago
where is has remained
stuck in an ‘in transit’ status
ever since its arrival.
will *mrs. ticklefeather ever be found?
is she still considered lucky?
is there a rival golden book collector near me
looking for the same book?
does paul her pet puffin, have anything to do with this?
it remains to be seen and i remain hopeful
this story isn’t over yet.
—
*Book summary – Rare ~~ Mrs. Ticklefeather was a very thin old lady with a good sized feather in her hat, and on her feet she had tall black shoes with plenty of buttons. She lived on the top floor of a terribly high building because the top floor is the best place for getting sunshine, and, Oh, what a good thing sunshine is for thin old ladies. When her pet puffin, Paul, goes missing, the elderly Mrs. Ticklefeather becomes very upset, but the next day Paul returns and brings with him a special gift that brings her great and unexpected happiness. Great illustrations in mid- century yet modern style.
—
“hope is the last thing ever lost.”
italian proverb
Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Penguin Books, 2005
today
when the kinders found things out of place
they went to put them in our class lost and found
but discovered it was missing.
the class then set out to find the lost and found
that was lost
until someone found it
and proudly put it back in place
then the mini wooden zebra, the blue rubber spider, and the green magna-tile
found a place to wait until we can find where they belong.
“first up, the lost and found has gone missing.
it itself, is lost.
so please try not to lose anything until we find it.”
-michael scott, the office
I didn't have my glasses on.... 