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What gives you comfort?

6/24/2014

1 Comment

 
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I struggled through today. It wasn’t a horrible day by any standard, just a day full of small stumbling blocks. A seemingly never ending task list. A lingering sadness from recently losing my precious little dog, Buddy.

We’ve all had those days. I just wanted to get finished with the day, shed the work clothes, and get into something comfortable.

I’m not ashamed to tell you I have a closet full of clothes. I’m not a fashionista by any means- I guess I just hold onto things until they are well past their expiration date. Way in the back of the closet, I swear there is a pair of boots from my college years (does leather really ever go out of style)? I have sweatshirts and yoga pants piled on the top shelf like I work out on a regular basis (yeah, right). Hiding at the bottom of that pile of faded cotton and stretched-out lycra. I found the comfort I was looking for today.

It’s just an old aqua fleece jacket. These days, I guess the color is closer to ice blue than aqua, since I usually throw it in the washer with the towels. The zipper is hard to pull and the elbows are covered in little pills. The pockets are full of either dryer lint or kleenex, depending on how long it has been since wash day. You can’t call it my most flattering color, but it goes really well with black yoga pants or faded jeans. And pulling on that jacket gives me a sense of comfort that is hard to explain.

Me and that jacket – we’ve gone places. But I don’t pack it in my suitcase that often. In fact, it never goes on my business trips. Maybe that is why it feels special to put it on – it has that “vacation vibe” to it. Got anything in your wardrobe that does that for you?

Yep, I have photos to back that vibe up. There’s me, (in aqua and no makeup) on top of a volcano in Hawaii. Lounging on a deck chair during a cruise. Waiting on a puddle jumper at Belize City Airport to whisk us off to Ambergris Caye. It also makes an appearance in most of my Facebook pics of family weekends or holiday sleepovers. My favorite is the one of me, my sister and our mom in the kitchen one Christmas, gathered round a dish of brussel sprouts. If we snapped a few selfies on the couch watching football on Sunday afternoon, chances are my back is covered in fuzzy, faded fleece. I even have one of me and my little Buddy, huddled together during a recent thunderstorm. He took the selfie with his paw, while trying to climb in my lap.

I’ve considered putting that jacket in the Goodwill pile, but something tells me we have a few good years left together. I want to go on more trips. I hope to do more family holiday sleepovers. And I plan to have many more lazy weekends where a soft little jacket is the required dress code. I look forward to those comfortable times.

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What gives you comfort? I know one little girl who likes to take comfort from a snuggie bear. 

Post by Tykester.
1 Comment
Nancy Pennington
6/25/2014 12:27:28 am

There are those struggling days....we are all going uphill, I guess. Even after you are "over the hill" you are still going uphill. The piano gives me comfort. When I am struggling to make sense of any day, I sit at the piano and gives thanks that my mom and dad decided I needed piano lessons....such a good decision. Playing the piano gives me music and memories. I remember practicing with our little parakeet, Sunny, sitting on the edge of the mucis holder, nibbling on the sheet music. I still have that music and yes, it has little holes along the top edge.

I remember when Larry and I had our first real argument during the early years of marriage. I had no piano to sit down and recover my comfort so I took the keys and walked out the door headed to my parents house. Since they were on vacation and I had a key, I thought I would use her piano for my comfort. I stayed about two hours and of course I was "unable to come to the phone" because this was 1966 and phones stayed attached to the outlet. When I came back to our apartment, Larry was standing in the middle of the room staring at me. Very calmly and very sternly he said, "I will never walk out on you without telling you where I am going.....and YOU will never do that again." That was it....all he said, but it did give me a sense of security that our marriage would last.

I never did leave again without telling him where I was going and he never did either. In fact, almost fifty years later, we still check on each other....where we are.....and when we will be back. When I go to the piano and play strictly for "comfort," I thing about that incident and smile.

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    Unabashed redhead learning how to reinvent herself to keep up in this world. How in the world did you find me here? As long as you dropped by, you might as well stay awhile.  

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