Monday, September 10, 2012

what to do when no one is around

Call your sister back.  She will tell you her troubles and ask you for advice, and you will give her bad advice, lots of it, all in a row, and keep laughing through the phone line.  She will enjoy it eventually, and find an answer that pleases her.

Check facebook and instagram and see all the other people who may also have no one to talk to, so they write down everything they do and take lots of pictures.  Try it yourself.  It makes loneliness companionable.

Make a one-dish wonder for one in your tiny new cast iron skillet you got at a half off church basement sale.

Cut rhubarb from your back yard.  Call your parents and ask for recipes.  Make one in the wrong sized pan and purpose in your heart to feed it to your friends along with lavender ice cream when they return.

Play guitar for an hour at a time.  Repeat.  Impress yourself as you are starting to feel callouses on your fingertips.

Walk downtown.  Walk to your new bank which is closed.  Walk into a second (or third or fourth) hand furniture shop.  Note the condition of the futon mattress.  Walk out.

Walk to the library.  Get a library card.  Check out a book and two movies.  Get home, read some book, and decide to pop in the movies.  Due to the fact that you did not know that the movies needed to be gotten from the check out desk, there are no movies to watch and the now library is closed.  Purpose in your heart to return to the library at the earliest convenience.  (Note, the following week, that it has not yet been convenient.  Grimace.)

Go to church in the evening.  There are twelve people there, and they need to see you, too.  Love them and be thankful.

Go to your friends' house, because they are home now.  Feed them your bread-pudding-esque "rhubarb cobbler" in a bread pan, and ice cream, and stay for two hours.  Be thankful for them as they are good to you.  Be good to them and love them.  Play your practiced songs for them on a borrowed guitar.  Be glad you have had time to prepare something to share and present yourself as a gift.

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