Earlier this Summer,
I planted a Basil Plant in my Kitchen Window.
I wanted a Rich and Robust Verdant Plant with Opulent Flavorful Leaves of Basil, like the kind you find in the Italian Markets at the Peak of Season.
I was wrapped in Glad Expectancy!
But that didn’t happen.
Instead, I got a long kinda’ scrawny, spindly plant with very small and thin pale green leaves.

And although it wasn’t what I was hoping for,
It is still a Miracle.

I stop and Count the Miracles.
Fresh Basil
Flavor
Taste Buds
My Wonderful Neighbor who watered it when I was away
That sense of Community
Water
The Plant itself
And the Life that Grows
Having a Window in a NYC Apartment that gets such great Light
My Home
…All of it.

But does this ever happen to you?
You hope for Exceptional Basil and you get just a small spindly plant?
You want to be the Hero, but you’re just You?
You want to have the body of BEYONCE or RYAN REYNOLDS or LUCY LIU but your body is just Your Body?
You want to be at the Beach enjoying these precious dwindling days of Summer, but you are immersed in uncontainable Duties, Responsibilities, and Work today?
You want to fit back into your skinny clothes, but you only fit back into last year’s fat clothes and they are still tight at the waist, but at least you can get into them?
You just want to have smooth sailing, but it is as Rocky and Torrential a Storm as you have ever weathered, and there’s not even anything unusually intense going on — it’s just Your Life?
You want to feel Peaceful, but you can’t help feeling a bit frayed?

Sometimes I so look forward to a fresh Red Ripe Tomato in my Salad, but the ones in my Kitchen are a few days old, so I cut out the mushy part, and use ‘em before they get any worse.

Sometimes I want to be GEORGE CLOONEY flying provisions to the people rendered Homeless by Hurricane Katrina, or KEVIN COSTNER designing a way to clean up the Gulf Oil Spill,
But I’m just me at the Kitchen Sink taking the extra time to wash recyclable plastic yogurt containers by hand, and shopping at four different stores in search of recycled PaperTowels made from Paper, not from Trees.

Sometimes I want to have the Singing Voice of MAX VON ESSEN or LILLIAS WHITE, or the Acting Talent of JAN MAXWELL, or the sheer Comic Genius of NANCY OPEL or DANNY BURSTEIN, but I don’t. My Talent is of a Less Spectacular Kind.

Sometimes I want to have a Big House like ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER’s Servants Quarters at Sydmonton, but I Live in a Rent-Stabilized Apartment in New York, where the Hot Water Runs Hot
Well, most of the time…
Often, even…

Sometimes, I wish I could End all Wars, but the reality is that if the Iran Nuclear Deal is the Best BARACK OBAMA and JOHN KERRY could do, it is unlikely I could do any Better, no matter how easy it may be to disparage their accomplishment!

Sometimes I wish I could understand the fame of TAYLOR SWIFT or KANYE WEST or DUCK DYNASTY.
But I can’t.

Jim Newman: Beautiful and Wildly Talented!

John Carroll: Beautiful and Wildly Talented!

Sometimes I wish I could have the Body of JIM NEWMAN or JOHN CARROLL or CHRISTIAN DANTE WHITE… But Who Doesn’t!

Christian Dante White: Beautiful and Wildly Talented

Sometimes I wish I could have done Everything in my Life Better.

But I cannot change the past.
I can only do the Best I can in this present Moment
And Work to Make the Future Better.

Sometimes I wish that Cooking Food for MOM for the Week took less time than it takes, but it Takes the Time it Takes.

Sometimes, I wish I were a Better Cook.
No I don’t!
I am a Fucking Awesome Cook!

Sometimes I want to have this posted for Labor Day Weekend
And after taking care of MOM and getting my other Responsibilities met, it’s already Mid-Sepember.

Let us Pause
Take a Moment
And Remember
We Do What We CAN!
We Count our Blessings!

TaDa! My Mushy Tomato and Pale Green Leaves of Basil Salad

My Basil is Sweet and Delicious — I Love the Miracle of BasilnegO (as we Italian Folk call it!) And I LOVE the Miracle of having it Grow in my Kitchen Window!
I LOVE Tomatoes and I think of how many people in the World aren’t having them today — Millions of Syrian Refugees walking toward Germany. What they wouldn’t give for a Fresh Tomato — even a slightly mushy one!
What a Lucky Overprivileged Boy am I Today!

I Love being on a Planet and in an Industry in which GEORGE CLOONEY and KEVIN COSTNER use their fame to make the World a Better Place.
Very ELIZABETH TAYLOR-ISH!
And I Love that I know to rinse out recyclable containers and that something is being done to reduce waste — We were not nearly as Conscious of that Opportunity twenty years ago!

Voices like MAX VON ESSEN’s and LILLIAS WHITE’s are the Sounds of Heaven…
They Reach your Ears. They Grasp your Heart.
JAN MAXWELL’s talent has Moved me and Inspired me and Thrilled me.
And to have enjoyed Comic Genius the Likes of NANCY OPEL and DANNY BURSTEIN is the Rare Kind of FUN that brings Giddiness and Delight to our Very Souls!
I have experienced these Inexhaustible Pleasures countless times — I think I have seen pretty much Every Show these Folks have Ever Done.
To have been Entertained and Moved by People So At The Top of Their Craft is One of the Great Blessings I have Known.

I have Hot and Cold Running Water and most of the World Doesn’t!
Grateful Grateful Grateful Grateful Grateful

The Iran Nuclear Deal
… as opposed to another War…
Grateful Grateful Grateful Grateful Grateful

TAYLOR SWIFT….. KANYE WEST… DUCK DYNASTY…
Sure! If You Like…
I just prefer LILLIAS WHITE and MAX VON ESSEN and TREE HOUSE MASTERS…
They’re Better!

What a Beautiful World it is with the Likes of JOHN CARROL and JIM NEWMAN walking around!
No I don’t have their Bodies
Though I admire them.
But it’s the Lessons of This Body I’m in, that I need to Learn on this Journey!
And How Nice that they Post Ample FaceBook Pictures for the Rest of Us Mere Mortals to Enjoy…

It took me a Long Time to Learn, as The Course In Miracles puts it, that “The one wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is not here.”
I am So Grateful to be Living My Life with that understanding.

I LOVE ACCEPTANCE.
I LOVE the NOW.
I LOVE the Gift of the PRESENT
And The World
And Everyone In It!
The Talented People!
The Daily Miracles!
The Extraordinary Positive Changes I have Witnessed…
The Recycling.
The Clean-Up of the Gulf of Mexico.
The NANCY OPEL.
The LILLIAS WHITE…

How Blest We Are!
How Little time there is to Waste wanting and Wishing for Something Else.
How Wonderful to See how Perfect it All Is — Just the Way it Is!
How Grateful am I!
GRATEFUL GRATEFUL GRATEFUL GRATEFUL GRATEFUL!
For My Life!
For This World!
For All These Gifts!
For All These People!

What are these tiny Buds Shooting Up through the Soil…

New Life Springs Forth

At the Beginning of the Summer I planted some Flowers — They were seeds I had from years Ago.
Enormous Green Plants have Bloomed in these Small Flower Pots.
I was Jubilant!
I have now been told that they are probably weeds.
Sigh.
I don’t even know what one does with weeds when they grow in a flower pot!
How did they get there?
Do I keep them?
I feel a little like WILLARD.
They add a lot of Greenery, though.
And that’s how it is sometimes.
Sometimes you’re the BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL…
And sometimes you get weeds.
But, for the Moment, they are Green.
Oxygenating plants.
They take in the Carbon Dioxide I Breathe out
And they Turn it into the Oxygen I Breathe in
They still add Life to a Room…
I am Grateful for ALL of LIFE
Grow Something!
Grow the Best You Can!
Grow Your Basil!
Grow Your Weeds!
Take in the Light!
Breathe in the Air!
Drink in the Water!
Spread Your Leaves!
Grow!

Lucky Me!
I am, among all men, Most Richly Blessed!

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