Juxtaweekend

If "juxtaposition" can be used to describe a weekend, this particular one of mine was just that.  Allow me please, if you will, to transport you back to October, in the crazy-ass year of 2020.  I wrote this blog post that Sunday evening with every intention of sharing it... and then I don't know what happened!

So, let's go back...

I took off early Saturday morning from Maryland's beautiful Eastern Shore for a visit with my son under the guise of bringing some things for his apartment he now shares with two roommates -- in New York City.  Okay, so these were a few things they really did need and I am happy to oblige and it also meant a few hours with him, orrrr, let me go spend a few hours with him and oh-by-the-way I've got an end table and a table lamp and a floor lamp and a fan and if you flip this really cool old wooden crate upside down it makes an awesome coffee table for your tiny apartment.  And the motherload of peanut butter, two loaves of bread, a fresh jar of Dean's Honey, lightbulbs, and zip ties.  Oh, and a pumpkin bucket chock full of Halloween candy.  K?  See you soon! 

Which really came first, the chicken or the egg?  I don't know.  Call it what you want -- all is fair in the world of mama bears, but all I know is I loved the day.  It's alot of car time which means alot of time to just think, or alot of time to just not think.  It means music on the radio turned way up loud and a whole lot of turnpike karaoke.  It means I just found my Backstreet Boys cd and ima play it.  Alot.  I video'd the city straight up through my sunroof and shared it with friends.  The city's hurting but it's also super-strong, because New Yorkers are like that.  Super strong.  So we enjoyed the most excellent crisp beautiful Autumn day taking in the gorgeous local colors and foods and sounds and people of East Harlem and we laughed and smiled, alot.  And then just like that, four hours later I'm back down south and getting ready for bed.

Which brings us to the "juxta" part. 

Waking up Sunday with plenty to do here at home and every intention of doing it, by noon it just wasn't happening and I decided it was a fight not worth having.  What was missing?  The beach.  So me and my current read enjoyed the most excellent crisp beautiful Autumn afternoon taking in the gorgeous local colors and sounds and animals and people of Assateague Island.  No yellow taxis, no bagel stores, no crosswalks or traffic lights or sirens.  No honking cars.  No Backstreet Boys.  Just wild ponies and Sika deer, the waves of the Atlantic and the dunes of the island, something I don't get to see often -- horses and riders, sand, warm sun, and the blue sky that only October can produce over these East Coast beaches.  While I closed my eyes to the sun and listened to the ocean, I thought about it... how crazy that at 2pm yesterday I was sitting in a sidewalk cafe enjoying beyond amazing authentic farm-fresh city Mexican dishes with two of the cutest theater kids I know -- in East Harlem -- and at 2pm today I was sitting in a beach chair reading a chapter or two and taking it all in, and quietly thanking God for a really long list of things He's given me.  

I'm grateful for what we have and sad for what we may not have anymore, and I am grateful for the opportunities to do things like be in New York City one day, and on Assateague Island the next.  "Juxtaweekend" seems to fit.

...Now almost 7 months later, it still seems a good fit.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.