Today was one of those days where everything went wrong. Starting at 4AM. Which is when the dogs suddenly decided they HAD to get to the park immediately. I contemplated trying to ignore them, but I knew where that would lead. Terriers have the metabolisms of hummingbirds and, when they say they’re ready “to go”, they really mean it. Thirty second warning.
So out to the park, where I discovered San Francisco had just had an unseasonable rain. All three of us slipped in the wet grass and came back to the house covered with mud from the newly resodded grounds. Not a good mix with a white comforter. At 4:25 AM, it’s easy to decide a few muddy pawprints on the duvet are nothing to lose sleep over. There are worse things.
Then it got worse. A fight broke out over a rawhide bone. (In which I was not involved.) However, it was such a fierce and emotional fight that both dogs lost control of their bladders. Which, of course, meant going back to something I thought I’d left behind in my single, pre-house owning days: a trip to the Laundromat (since home washing machines don’t handle duvets.)
The Little Hollywood Launderette is a lot more fun at night when the bars are open.
Well, I told myself, I’ll spend the hour or so in the nearby Internet Café, writing a post. Not to be. Seems this economic downturn has disproportionately affected cafes within a walking distance of the Little Hollywood Launderette. No Wi-Fi anywhere and, worse yet, no chance of a cup of joe which was sorely needed by this time in the morning.
This is all a long way around getting to my point, which is the tale of how I pulled myself up from these depths of despair. It was as simple as turning on my iPod and rediscovering the Zen philosophy that is a Willie Nelson song.
As I slumped down, thinking of all the stuff I needed to do and wasn’t doing, this pearl of wisdom rolled out from The Braided One:
I can be moving or I can be still
But still is still moving to me
I agree, Willie. You are Number ONE.
So, Willie, you’re saying that even though I’m stuck in a crummy Laundromat, I can still use the time to move something forward. Even if it’s just gathering thoughts, organizing a to-do list or, yes that’s right, getting the duvet cleaned.
While I was contemplating this valuable lesson and heading over to the only drier that would hold my duvet, a woman with multiple piercings jumped in front of me and slapped one black nailed hand on the top: “Mine, I got here first.”
Not a problem, in the next song, Willie had her fate sussed out:
Nobody slides my friend
You can try, but you’ll never win
You can run, you can hide but it’s still waitin’ inside
And nobody slides, my friend
Check out this book from Amazon.
Whew! Zen Master Willie telling me that I didn’t have to cause a scene with a tattooed, pierced Goth Girl. She’d eventually get hers.
This got me skimming through my country playlists to see what else Willie had to say about the state of the world. The Mother Lode of Life Philosophy seemed to be in one song: Nothin’ I Can Do About It Now.
I could cry for the time I’ve wasted
Buy that’s a waste of time and tears,
And I know just what I’d change
If I went back in time somehow
But there’s nothing I can do about it now.
However, another song had so much home-spun, hard-livin’ Texas wisdom poured into it, it could stand as The Gospel According to Willie. Here’s a taste:
I laugh when I can
I live with the rest
I learn that holding on means letting go
I try to be a friend
To the person on my left
They say you just can’t be too careful who you know
But that ain’t necessarily so
How about Willie Yoga? Photo: Yoga Journal
Is this guy the bandana-ed, cowboy-booted reincarnation of a Tibetan Lama or an Indian guru? Why is no one offering Willie Nelson Yoga? Instead of chanting, you stretch and pose to the wise words of Zen Master Willie. Can you imagine how calm and centered you’d be after that? Probably as relaxed as I was when I left The Little Hollywood Launderette.
Until I saw the parking ticket on my car.
ADDENDUM: Here are the full lyrics of Ain’t Necessarily So:
You can break your eggs to count your chickens
And you can break your neck to keep your ducks all in a row
But don’t think every chance you take
Has to mean a new mistake
It ain’t necessarily so
Now depending on the soil and the season
You can plant a seed and you can watch it grow
But you can’t have a guarantee,
Cause everything that ought to be
ain’t necessarily so
I laugh when I can
I live with the rest
I learn that holding on means letting go
I try to be a friend
To the person on my left
They say you just can’t be too careful who you know
But that ain’t necessarily so
I’d like to have more faith in human logic
Basing all the rules on the proof that you could show
But I can’t take my guesses back
That I based on all those facts
That ain’t necessarily so
And every time I follow what I’m feeling
I end up in the same place my heart would have me go
If there’s one rule of life I trust
It’s everything outside your gut
ain’t necessarily so
I laugh when I can
I live with the rest
I learn that holding on means letting go
I try to be a friend
To the person on my left
They say you just can’t be too careful who you know
But that ain’t necessarily so
Thanks Lyricsmania.
