Life According To Fluffy...

My entire life has been spent attached to my one and only baby. I was presented to her by Mom and Dad on her first birthday and we have been together on and off, mostly on, for many decades.  Life through my eyes with her has shown me lots of things. Some great, some good and some we would just like to forget.  I have seen the inside of a backpack; been stuffed in a duffel; squished in a box and hugged and tugged so that my once soft "fluffy" and puffy body is now worn to about being bald. Through it all I lived a life!

I got to sleep and camp in the backyard.  I went to grade school a couple times. I was taken to a few sleepovers but never understood the "sleep" part. I saw lots of cartoons on Saturday mornings and marveled at The Jetsons and what life might be like only to now see the results of automation beyond our expectations.

In the 60's I was carried to boarding school; quiet and structured; lights out at 10 P.M. and "study hall" everyday from 4 to 6. I got to college and was blown away by the difference! I witnessed parties on Thursdays that seemed to last through the weekends. Study time was made up of some "all nighters", trips to the library and group gatherings in a dorm room. Remembering bright blue eyes and long light hair that turned into short Afro big hair and bell bottom pants being worn with wool socks and Birkenstocks.  Life was a loose and busy road of learning new things and planning for "the future". Spent lots of time with family and made many new friends but still kept in touch with the old ones too.

In the 70's, 80' and 90's I knew the best music ever; could name a movie artist by title and watch lesson plans being made and coaching drills being created. Saw work weeks take over weekends and heard about winter vacations spent at basketball tournaments, ski weekends and ice fishing gatherings.  Summer seemed much shorter than Winters. Beach trips with family and friends, golfing 18 holes, night time fire pits and then back to very early morning alarm clocks to get in a "workout".  Hair was now short and streaked with grey. A new ear pierced allowed for earrings of three and an artful small tattooed red apple completed the "back to school" fashion.  Fall came and late nights returned. New words like "curriculum", "evaluations", "budgets", "debt service" and "meetings" seemed to fill the time.  School years were beginning and ending and again we were living a life of patterns that were replayed. It seemed the more things changed the more they remained the same except that...

Now our 80's are in the headlights and we know almost nothing about the music we hear; we know a few of the names of folks in movies and most movies we don't want to see; our beverage of choice is ice tea and wine shows up around 5.  We love our bed. Daily walks have replaced early morning "workouts" only now we need hats and sunglasses; we hear moaning when we sit, groaning when we rise and choose the rocker over the recliner sometimes.  Long road trips now require frequent hotel stops;  we don't drive in ice and snow and the confidence of night driving isn't there so much.  The challenge of using smart tvs, reprogramming remotes, using an "app", finding our "downloads" and understanding our cars keeps us wondering. My light blue fluffy body is now naked and no longer soft. Her hair is white, eyes still blue and now owns a slightly wrinkled little tattoo.  Pay days come once a month and meetings are replaced with quiet afternoon scrabble games for two. Time with family and friends will always be highlights of our life and we are thankful for texting and face time.  We own less and move less but we love more, read more, talk more and know more about what really matters. One might say our daily schedules have come to a relaxing crawl. Clocks and calendars tick away time just the same as before, back when we were planning a "future", so how come the seconds and minutes and hours of time feel like they accelerate faster than we can remember... 

maybe because our "future" is here.