Here and Now

You can blame my infrequent blogging on the weather. Or perhaps on the realization that my life in Poland has turned into a park-jogging, outdoor-picnicing, sunset-gazing, ice-cream eating, milkshake-drinking, dog-watching, baby-lusting, grassy hill-lounging kind of heaven. Pole Mokotowskie Park is amazingly beautiful during this time of year – all of the trees are in bloom and the grass is exquisitely green. Kids play Frisbee, pregnant women eat pickles under a cherry blossom tree, dogs splash around in the lake, and the rollerbladers smile at me (and sometimes hit on me) as I wave at them when I run by. Now I trot around Mokotowskie every day and if I’m lucky (which is usually) I am invited to meet a friend or two at Lolek (the outdoor beer garden pub) for a post-run beer. A good life indeed.

Springtime casts a spell on us. I think it is a spell of gratitude. Or maybe it’s joy. Or freedom. Under a magnolia tree, I look up at the sky and with a few fleeting moments of calm when my brain stops spinning, the whole world is just right. Just breathing is a kind of enchantment; a kind of love.

If you are reading this, you should stop whatever you’re doing and go out and frolic. Buy yourself an ice-cream or drink yourself a beer; or run or swim; or kiss someone you love because “it’s life and it’s really happening right now.”

I could blog about preparing for the Holocaust survivors’ Spring retreat, about my running list of joys/concerns/frustrations, about my recent adventure in Belgium, about working at the Kosher hot dog stand at the Yom Ha’atzmaut party, or about being seated right next to Venus Williams at a restaurant in Warsaw this past Sunday evening (I’m not kidding), but instead I am going to enjoy the here and now. I am going to abandon my words and just be.

“... deeds cannot dream what dreams can do
time is a tree (this life one leaf)
but love is the sky and i am for you
just so long and long enough.”
- ee cummings