GETTING READY

It occurred to me as I typed that heading that likely it’s wise to get ready before you get started … However, I’ve clearly precluded that possibility for this blog.

It never crossed my mind when I began thinking about this trip to Tasmania that somehow getting ready would come to involve (more or less fruitless) attempts to get my whole life in order before I began to pack my bags—books weeded, papers filed or recycled, that box that’s been at the back of the cupboard for uncountable years opened and sorted … well, you get the idea. Now, some three days from departure, I’ve given up the notion of leaving tidy rooms and bare surfaces and labeled files and have narrowed my gaze to the things heaped on the spare room bed—the things I “might” decide to pack.

Oh, I’ve still got several lists of things to do, including half a dozen letters I’d like to write before I leave—a couple of people I’d like to see—some phone calls to make and of course the neverending errands. Vitamins – I need a bottle of vitamins. What about cartridges for my fountain pen? And the black jeans I’ve been promising myself to buy for the past month? Well, as Irene McGuire, my friend and hostess in Tasmania recently pointed out, there are shops in Hobart, lots of them, so perhaps I can let go of the errands and enjoy the gorgeous summer afternoon that has fallen on Toronto. It’s ripe with the whine of cicadas, occasionally rife with the explosive fly-overs of the airshow.

I might take my egg salad sandwich out to the old school desk that sits on the front porch to eat, and watch the light dappling the street as I listen for goldfinches. They are thick in this neighbourhood right now, rising in startled clouds from the cosmos in people’s gardens as I walk along the streets. I hear their sweet call that sounds to me something like “tea-cup, tea-cup” all over.