july 15: lila, from the bench on 78th and broadway. happiness expert

a few steps away from the stairs to my apartment building is broadway street.  broadway has a median, separating the lanes going uptown from those going downtown, and that median has trees on it, and at certain points, benches.

i find myself on these benches quite often, reading or writing, or enjoying an icy treat in the hot sun, or enjoying something almost as equally refreshing: a conversation with a perfect stranger.  the idea for this blog was thought up on these very benches that i speak of.

i met lilah on one of these benches.

lilah is a nice middle-aged lady with a manicured, pretty little dog.  i told her that her dog was cute, and our conversation began.  she was interested in hearing about my internship and then told me of her travels when she was my age.   she said, "i learned a whole lot in college, and from traveling, but those years wouldn't have been nearly the same for me if i didn't hear something from my grandmother on an otherwise uneventful day the summer after i graduated high school.  you want to know what she told me?"

astounded at the wisdom that is seeming to seep out of people lately without even the slightest request, i nodded and politely, but almost cautiously, replied, "yes, i would love know," just about expecting her to throw her head back and laugh, saying, "girl, gotcha! i know exactly what you are up to!"

but she didn't.  she just continued, saying,

"people have a tendency to "save-up" their contentment and bliss for a future date, when they think things will be absolutely perfect. what if i were to tell you that this is it?  because it is!   time has served you well, and everything, right now, is exactly as it should be.  it was for me back when i was eighteen just as much as it is for me today.  love is in the air, the best is yet to come, and there is no need to put off total happiness for tomorrow by not seeing past the imperfections of today.  carpe diem, baby!  this is it! congratulations- you made it!!  now go on and let yourself enjoy every bit of happiness that you can literally only access today.  tomorrow will have its own full stock of joys, but don't let the train pass by today without grabbing today's package.  tomorrow they will be expired.  you only have today to enjoy them.  that's really all there is to it.  this is it!"