The very best of something

I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I’ve been – Winnie the Pooh

So, I did!. I walked away from the computer, the garden, the laundry and such, adjusted my newly installed magnificent driver’s side mirror, repositioned my car’s seat and rambled off to the elegant La Grange Theatre. Oh, it was a journey, for certain, for are not all walking aways filled with challenges?

 

The first challenge was my own winding road. The bridge to be crossed is being repaired and down to one lane with a temporary stack of poles and lights  giving drivers the green when the way is clear. I sat for at least 5 precious minutes waiting for the light to turn green, with no car coming the opposite way during the entire wait. Then, a freight train, a very slow moving freight train, ate up another 5 precious minutes, followed by much traffic juggling for parking spaces, turn lanes, pedestrians, and bicyclists who all felt that the road was their very own (when, really, wasn’t it just mine?)

I parked the car in the very last available spot, then I walked as fast a I walk these days and entered the gilded theatre! Ticket in hand, in I went, to the opening strains of a woodsy tea party awaiting Christopher Robin for a sad goodbye as woodland friends gathered in the 100 Acre Woods and were brought to life by the magic of imagination.

I found a seat, which wasn’t hard as there were but a dozen or so “walkers away” in the theatre; a group of women in front of me, a few more mid-section, an older fellow with a soft drink in one hand, a big container of popcorn in the other, and a mother with her preschool aged child across the aisle from me. The little girl was the bow on the gift of this movie. I could hear her uttering her fears in the scary parts, crawling onto her mama’s lap, and her infectious squeals of laughter were as if on cue from the movie’s director, as Tigger bounces, Eeyore laments and Owl pontificates. Quiet moments and mad-cap scenes made all-the-more delightful by this young darling.

Christopher Robin is a story of finding one’s self while battling the hufflelumps and woofles of life, all on a weekend when the overworked, adult Christopher must work on a way to cut costs for the suitcase company he works for with others’ jobs on the line, while his boss goes off to play golf, and his wife and daughter are off to the Robin cottage in Sussex.

In-the-meantime, long forgotten Winnie cannot find his best friends and misses the long-gone Christopher Robin, who surely would know how to find them. Winnie does, well, what Winnie does, which is to walk away from where he is to find Christopher.

What a beautiful, funny, sad, thought-provoking movie this is. To think, I might not have gone off and walked away had it not been for the fact that yet another certain young girl, who owns my heart, but who lives far, far away, remarked to her mommy upon seeing Christopher Robin that she thought Yia Yia might enjoy it, too – and I did. I most certainly did, and I think that you might as well.

“Doing nothing often leads to the very best of something.” – Winnie the Pooh

https://movies.disney.com/christopher-robin

(movie trailer from the official Disney site)

 

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I May Go Out Tomorrow

In honor of my long suffering black wool winter coat with a crone’s hood, and in deference to the brittle cold still with us, here’s a little fun from the Cutoff. “Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear”, which at least one of my children thought I made up. Could it have have been my unique singing voice, or embarrassingly silly antics?

Written by Randy Newman, it has been performed by many, including the Muppets. I give you three versions. Take your pick of renditions, turn up the volume, ignore the commercials, and smile.

Do you have a favorite old coat or sweater or hat? How about a dancing bear?

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Lost my bounce

I learned the word “drookit” from Janice in Caunes on her wonderful blog. We’ve been having a string of drookit days here on the Cutoff with rain and more rain under grey skies and clouds heavy with worry.

You see, I’ve been feeling a tad like Tigger when he lost his bounce. My words have been having a slow time coming out, stuck inside  me like a tummy ache after too much time in the honey pot. I know they are around here, somewhere, waiting to be said, just as soon as I can get back to Pooh Corner. So, bear with me, dear reader, as I find my way out of these woods.

In the meantime, won’t you please enjoy a bit of nostalgia with Kenny Loggins and I’ll work on getting my bounce back.

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Thoughts from Piglet . . .

“Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.” 

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Enduring

It was such a blustery day today. A Winnie the Pooh sort of day with the madness of March as the old north wind huffed and puffed upon us. Not to be daunted, with errands to run, grateful it was merely a hearty wind that had come to call, and bearing in mind all the horrendous forces of nature others are enduring right now, off I went to the usual places folks tend to go on a Saturday; the post office, the bank, a store to pick up something I saw a few days ago, and to the library.

How grateful I am to have eyes that can see and mail to post and a home that is still standing. How grateful I am to be buffered against the March wind.

How grateful I am.

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Did you ever?

Did you ever forget where you got an image? I did with this one, saved in a file for use on a "didgaever" day.

Did you ever write with a twig in the sand – a heart or your name or the name of another?Did you ever draw simple squares on a sidewalk or driveway with a piece of gravel, or a chunk of chalk and play hopscotch with a friend all afternoon? Did you ever watch a storm come in, over a lake or down a highway? Did you ever catch a lightning bug and cup it in your hand, ever-so-tight and then peak in to see if it would light up for you? Did you ever curl up under a tree or in a lawn chair or in front of a fan and read a book you never wanted to end?

One summer I read Heidi by Johanna Spyri. A neighbor had given my sister and me a box of books that her children had read. Heidi was one of the books. I loved the story and the old grandfather and Peter and Peter’s blind grandmother and I cried when Heidi was taken away to live with Clara, though I loved Clara. I remember trying to pace myself – one chapter at a time. I failed. I failed and soon Heidi was done.

I read the two sequels, Heidi Grows Up and Heidi’s Children, though they were written by Spyri’s English translator. They took me through a good part of the summer and they took me to the Alps until I found The Bobbsey Twins. Although I was a little old for them at the time, I didn’t care, and I read and I read until my eyes burned and my grandmother told me to go outside and play. Instead, I found Winnie-the-Pooh, which in my estimation is much more fun to read to oneself than aloud, though I’m not quite sure why, and Treasure Island, which I must read again someday. Our neighbor’s gift was a big magic box to me when summer days seemed so long.

How about you? Did you read books in summer as a child? What did you read? What are you reading now?

When someone says”How do you do,” just say you didn’t. Eeyore

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