Quote of the day

	“The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.” -William Morris

This is a quote I received via email this morning.  I'm not sure what to make of it, exactly.  I do recognize that apathy is not life-enhancing; nor is numbness.  Is this related to the Buddhist concept of awareness (mindfulness) and staying in the moment?

Focusing on the task at hand would likely result in more peace.  If the mind is not wandering to its points of harmful obsession, then yes, I do see the benefit.  The mind can be incredibly destructive if left unchecked.

Today I will attempt to do this - to take a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.  Since I am accustomed to being on autopilot much of the time, this will be a challenge.

April Fool's

This year I truly tricked The Child.  On April 1, which happened to be a spring break day for him, I mentioned to him that the current real estate market in our city happens to heavily favor sellers.  There are lots of people interested in buying, with a shortage of houses on the market.  Thus, the houses which are for sale are selling fast and high.  It's a seller's market.

I went on to say that because of this, I've decided to sell our house and strike while the iron is hot.

Now, anyone who knows me would absolutely not believe that statement.  This past June, The Child and I finally moved into the house of my dreams in the neighborhood of my dreams.

However, The Child was apparently taken in by my prelude about the seller's market.  I even went so far as to ask him where he hoped we'd live next.

He seemed a bit taken aback, but did not question my declaration about selling the house. He said he'd think about where he wanted to live next and took off on his bike to spend time with friends.

About 90 minutes later, I received a text from The Child: "It's April first, mom.  You aren't really selling the house."  And of course, I confirmed that he was right.

shops in our neighborhood

I'm surprised that it took him so long.  I have raved about this neighborhood throughout his life, explaining in great and excessive detail why I wanted to live here.   It's not an exaggeration to say that it's been an obsession of mine.  The Child largely went along with it.  I remember a few years ago when I almost bought a house here.  (It never happened because I was unsuccessful at selling my old house.)  We were both really psyched about it and devastated when it didn't work out.  We had spent a lot of time in this neighborhood so his favorite places to eat and shop were here. 

In fact, on Easter 2012, the buyers of my old house finally showed up.  My realtor had decided on a whim to hold my house open that day even though Easter was not a day most people spent going on house tours.  I had just had my kitchen renovated, which my realtor said was mandatory, and I was hoping that was enough to make the small house appeal to someone.  And it was.

What happened this past Sunday (Easter 2013) demonstrated why I wanted to live here.  That morning I was up early feeding the birds and squirrels when suddenly I realized that I hadn't yet bought an Easter basket for The Child.  I didn't have to fire up the car and drive to some suburban Walmart.  Nope!  I just walked out the back door, through my yard with all of the trees I just planted last summer, through the urban park which is my favorite in the area and onto the street shown in the photo above.  A few blocks away was a small neighborhood shop with plenty of baskets, trinkets and chocolate bunnies.  My decision to move here was validated again that day, as it is so frequently.

And that's no joke, April Fool's or otherwise.

the neighborhood at night

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